Greetings from Punta Arenas, Chile.
I never doubled the Horn when I was sailing deep sea, so for my fiftieth birthday, I gave myself a trip to the end of the world.
Today, I board the Chilean flagged, expedition/luxury/adventure cruise ship Stella Australis here in Punta Arenas for a week long voyage following the route of Darwin and Beagle down the Magellan Strait, Beagle Channel and two possible landings on Cape Horn Island.
Yep, it isn’t the foc’sle of the brig Pilgrim or barque Neptune’s Car under Captain Irons Saul Pendleton and chief mate Otto Lassiter, but I figure it might be the only way I do make it in this lifetime. (Are there ANY American flagged deep sea vessels even sailing to South America any more?)
If we make the landing (I have 2 shots) I’ll be sure to toast those that made it and those that did not…
Not sure where this should have been posted, so I will leave it up to the powers that be to determine where it will reside.
45 South to 45 South!
congratulations on your well earned adventure…I could yarn with you till the wee hours about a place I too have yet to experience but will offer this for the moment
Ah yeah…that tune has been running through my head consistently for a few months now.
A pilgrimage. Plain and simple.
Although you and I have had our disagreements here, you’re a sailor like me, and that’s all that matters right now.
The weather looks like shit for Tuesday a dead muzzler out of the west, 80 knots plus! Can’t wait!
I’d be disappointed if Cape Stiff wasn’t howling on my arrival.
I’m sure you would be too…
[QUOTE=capnfab;179112]The weather looks like shit for Tuesday a dead muzzler out of the west, 80 knots plus! Can’t wait!
I’d be disappointed if Cape Stiff wasn’t howling on my arrival.
I’m sure you would be too…[/QUOTE]
agreed…experiencing the Horn on a calm and sunny day simply would not be in keeping with its time earned reputation for destroying ships and men. In the end, any true mariner would only take away a very hollow and empty feeling of having been gypped of the true place we have all read so much about.
For myself, I do have my comparisons for rounding Capes Flattery, Decision, Spencer as well as many others in right awful weather and looked out to those wave swept outcroppings and wondered if that is what “the Horn” would appear like in the murk?
[QUOTE=capnfab;179109]45 South to 45 South![/QUOTE]
Just remember:
Below 40 degrees south there is no law.
Below 50 degrees there is no god.
Don’t forget to rub Magellens toe before you leave!
Bunkered there once, they have some nice knitted hats there too.
Hope you enjoy your voyage.
You have a real job, and I’m fucking jealous.
Enjoy yourself, take lots of pix and have fun. Be safe.
Roger that!
-
-
- Updated - - -
-
Magallanes’ statue was the first thing I did after dropping off my bags at the hotel. The beginning of the pilgrimage as it were.
Queen Mary 2 and Seven Seas Voyager (I think) were anchored off PA yesterday, so Magallanes Square was chock-a-block with cruise ship tourists.
Enough that even the thieving weed dealing teenagers were driven away.
[QUOTE=Capt. Phoenix;179115]Just remember:
Below 40 degrees south there is no law.
Below 50 degrees there is no god.[/QUOTE]
Roger that!
-
-
- Updated - - -
-
[QUOTE=KPChief;179117]Don’t forget to rub Magellens toe before you leave!
Bunkered there once, they have some nice knitted hats there too.
Hope you enjoy your voyage.[/QUOTE]
Magallanes’ statue was the first thing I did after dropping off my bags at the hotel. The beginning of the pilgrimage as it were.
Queen Mary 2 and Seven Seas Voyager (I think) were anchored off PA yesterday, so Magallanes Square was chock-a-block with cruise ship tourists.
Enough that even the thieving weed dealing teenagers were driven away.
Have a great trip! Hope you post a bit about the voyage so we can enjoy it vicariously!
[QUOTE=catherder;179123]You have a real job, and I’m fucking jealous.
Enjoy yourself, take lots of pix and have fun. Be safe.[/QUOTE]
Shee-it, I push more paper than oil anymore.
This voyage has been a long time in the making, back when I didn’t have a real job or my ticket for that matter. Dark times indeed.
The prospect of doubling the Horn was what kept me going ahead sometimes.
Definitely burning up the SD cards between my still camera and dedicated video cam.
I’ll see what I can do about creating a gallery on my return State side.
But now, it’s time to pack up, check out and get ready to head down to the port after a bowl of Cazuela stew at El Mercado.
"…and all hands are on deck playing pinochle in the warm Cape Horn sunshine…"
Percy Snow, AB, Barque Neptunes Car (from Sterling Hayden’s epic VOYAGE, which I am taking around Cape Horn with me. In addition to Dana’s TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST)
-
-
- Updated - - -
-
[QUOTE=water;179129]Have a great trip! Hope you post a bit about the voyage so we can enjoy it vicariously![/QUOTE]
Thanks. Will do.
Good Luck Capnfab. Enjoy it muchly. That there Beagle Channel is something itself when the wind howls. Here’s a little story I found about being down there, arriving for a trip…
[I]Toothfish – Memories of Punta Arenas
I recall the day. The torturous flight down at last over, we began the trek to town, and the port. Gray gravel topped by windblown, almost forlorn pines, few and far between. We came to the boat, now readied for it after her docking. A smallish ship, bright orange, we’d taken her from the Norwegian Sea to the Ross Sea, in pursuit of gold. Frozen gold, the Patagonian Toothfish. Or perhaps in tonier circles, Chilean Sea bass. $10 the kilo, off the boat. Gold.
Working the hauler, how many days and nights we stood at the side, Antarctic seas and the biting wind lashing our faces, where one comes to love it, or not. Sure, you could duck behind the opening and avoid the worst of it, and we had a keen eye for those waves that would crest at the wrong moment. But always, the rail, the water, seeking every crevasse and cranny in your gear. I’d gotten past hating it, some ten years ago. The smell of life in the frigid sea, the plankton, krill and fish, the smell of fish. The glistening, slippery look and feel of the fish, pure money, in ones hands.
At first they came easy, piling up at the head of the processing line. Our boys worked quickly, heads gone, gutted, washed and ready for come what may. Sebastian, a veteran of many winters at sea, set the pace there, his gap toothed grin flashing as we sent ever more fish aft. Arturo, Luis and Salvador working their knives furiously, seemingly as automatons. Soon enough the cleaned fish would be headed for the blast freezers.
Grey seas, and God was it cold. On the open decks, we scuttled like crabs, hanging on for life as we fled from foc’sle to the house. At first we could fill our holds to the southeast, but slowly, it petered out. We headed ever onward, the fishmasters’ eyes giving nothing away, as he drew deep, filling his lungs with the harshest smoke at hand.
In time, we found ourselves in the Ross Sea, 50 deg South a distant memory my friends. The trip of not weeks, but months, the fuel ROB and a touchy satcom our only tethers to civilization, mere threads that separated us from Shackleton. The storm came up quickly as we skirted the pack. Ice Class my friends, no worries. Yeah – today at the quay, the hull wears the scars – scars 300 mm set clean in, frames twisted like butter. Ice Class. Even the Norgies became men that night, slashing ice atop the seas more than a match for our steel canoe. If the hull breached, well, the rafts and the flimsy rescue boat would serve only as conveyances to a grisly, unseen end.
As we boarded, familiar smells awaited. Not unpleasant, after a lifetime of it. Just the smell of work, diesel, cigarettes, foul weather gear, lines and the general accumulation of 20 years fishing. It was cold today. We set our gear down and headed for the wheelhouse, that smoke chamber containing polar opposites. The skipper, a bony Chilean, pacing nervously, and the Norwegian fish master, seated, hardly stirring, buried in thought and his cigarette.
In a week’s time we’d be headed south again. A winter trip, but we had lived it before and would again. For now, we would make for the streets of Punta Arenas. Passing the grey beach, the broadcast tower and newish hotel on the way to town. We’d walk the streets, the crumbling sidewalks, in the cold grey light, jackets wrapped tight, bracing our shoulders against the wind, in search of something.
Something this seafaring life could bring.
[/I]
none of us…BUT NONE OF US, know what truly hard work seafaring used to be and any true mariner needs to tip his hat in respect to those who went before us and know we are not cut from the same iron stiff “storm canvas”!
Good morning from Ushuaia, Argentina.
No landing on Cape Horn yesterday due to weather conditions. WNW winds in excess of 70 knots.
Thursday is looking much better. I feel bad for the passengers that disembarked here in Ushuaia. One of the reasons I booked the 7 day cruise so I would have 2 chances to land on the island.
Been quite the experience so far with stops at Ainsworth Bay and the Pia Glacier then motoring down glacier alley and Beagle Channel.
Here it is, Cape Horn as seen from on deck.
[QUOTE=capnfab;179417]Good morning from Ushuaia, Argentina.
No landing on Cape Horn yesterday due to weather conditions. WNW winds in excess of 70 knots.
Thursday is looking much better. I feel bad for the passengers that disembarked here in Ushuaia. One of the reasons I booked the 7 day cruise so I would have 2 chances to land on the island.
Been quite the experience so far with stops at Ainsworth Bay and the Pia Glacier then motoring down glacier alley and Beagle Channel.
Here it is, Cape Horn as seen from on deck.
[/QUOTE]
I am adamantly against taking cruising vacations. . . BUT this one intrigues. . . .
[QUOTE=cmakin;179419]I am adamantly against taking cruising vacations. . . BUT this one intrigues. . . .[/QUOTE]
I hear ya…
I’m not exactly the cruising type and I generally have low regard for the general public, but this has been worth every cent.
I came for Cape Horn, but have become quite fond of Patagonia in general. The expedition team is top notch and their love for the region definitely shows.
Spent the bulk of the day at the Museo de Maritimo y Naval here in Ushuaia. The museum is in the Armada de Argentina’s Presidio housing a former prison. Excellent exhibits and a first rate gift shop stocked with some fantastic books.
Sailing this evening to anchor at Puerto Navarino and underway during the night for Murray Channel and Cape Horn in the morning. The prospects for landing on the island are looking pretty good.
Oh, do the cruise. You won’t regret it.
[QUOTE=capnfab;179470]I hear ya…
I’m not exactly the cruising type and I generally have low regard for the general public, but this has been worth every cent.
I came for Cape Horn, but have become quite fond of Patagonia in general. The expedition team is top notch and their love for the region definitely shows.
Spent the bulk of the day at the Museo de Maritimo y Naval here in Ushuaia. The museum is in the Armada de Argentina’s Presidio housing a former prison. Excellent exhibits and a first rate gift shop stocked with some fantastic books.
Sailing this evening to anchor at Puerto Navarino and underway during the night for Murray Channel and Cape Horn in the morning. The prospects for landing on the island are looking pretty good.
Oh, do the cruise. You won’t regret it.[/QUOTE]
Thanks. That is a part of the world that I have not been to as yet. A couple of years ago, the company I was working for handled a claim down there, unfortunately, I did not get the assignment. . .
We made it! Thursday morning.
Enjoy.
Sunrise at Cape Horn.
[QUOTE=capnfab;179637]We made it! Thursday morning.
Enjoy.
Sunrise at Cape Horn.[/QUOTE]
sunshine and calm seas!..what is it summertime there of something? I’d be asking for a big discount for that cruise you paid so dealy for.
me? I wouldn’t go near to “Cape Stiff” unless it was the dead of winter on some old “limejuicer”…no pale substitutes for this mariner!
Capnfab - if your interests go a bit beyond Cape Horn to the Southern Ocean in general you might enjoy this book.
Had the pleasure of reading it while transiting that part of the world. Bergs, fog and sea strainers full of krill. But the real excitement starts when you find out the cloud point of your fuel is not so compatible with the sea temps below the convergence.
Great pictures. Thanks for posting them.