Cape Horn and The Drake Passage

Feb 7th

Saturday – Cape Horn

At 10am we rounded Cape Horn and the Drake Passage spent all morning on deck watching the end of the earth pass by.  The morning had been grey and drizzly, and we saw the Horn draped in fog as we approached.  Then suddenly all cleared and the towering rocks came into view.  There is an Argentinian base with a lighthouses.

What a bleak place.  Probably only about 15 people stationed there.  A pilot had been with us since Ushuaia, and a small naval boat came out from the base to pick him up. It took a couple of goes to get him off, with a couple of suitcases, hoping with some good stuff for the boys there.  It must be tedious for them.

Spent most of the morning with Antonio and Mercedes, they are so much fun. We've been giving each other reciprocal English/Spanish lessons.  Whether we've improved remains to be see, but we've picked up some rude words to top up our vocab.

That was our last look at land and we headed off into the open sea, with only the occasional bird following.

The show tonight was a guy named Neil Lockwood, ex ELO, who did a sort of tribute to Elton John. We sat at the back so we could slope off if the show was naff.  But it was great fun and he was pretty good.