This page serves as a link to the various segements of our trip from Buenos Aires, Argentina, around Cape Horn, through the Beagle Channel, the Straits of Magellan, and the Chilean fjords to Valpariso, Chile in February-March 2009.

 

The photo above is a long telephoto shot of the wandering albatross memorial that stands at Cape Horn not far from the Cape Horn light station.  On December 5th 1992 the Cape Horn Memorial was inaugurated. The memorial was erected through the initiative of the Chilean Section of the Cape Horn Captains Brotherhood, the "Cape Horners."  The memorial was placed in memory of the men of the sea from every nation who lost their lives struggling to round the 'Horn against the forces of nature and the great southern ocean that prevail in the vicinity of Cape Horn. 

I, the albatross that awaits at the end of the world... I am the forgotten soul of the sailors lost, rounding Cape Horn from all the seas of the world. But die they did not in the fierce waves, for today towards eternity, in my wings they soar, in the last crevice of the Antarctic winds. Sara Vail, Valpariso, Chile

 

The forces of nature were prevailing the day that this photograph was shot...  as our vessel, the Carnival M/V Splendor neared Cape Horn, the weather turned and it began to rain as the winds picked up.  The temperature fell and the rain changed to sleet as the winds rose still higher, topping out that day in the range of 75-80 mph, which is hurricane force.  The waves also grew to the 15-18 foot range as we approached Cape Horn.  We ended up circumnavigating Isla de Hornos in a counter clockwise direction before our Chilean pilot and Captain Pegano stopped the ship, as is tradition, on the Cape Horn Meridian.  He ordered the Splendor's horn to sound three times and then we waited, as is also tradition, for the response that never comes from those who have been lost among the more than 800 shipwrechs that have occured off Isla de Hornos.  While we were stopped just a mile off Cape Horn, the winds were strong enough to heel the Splendor, which displaces 113,000 tons, about 15 degrees to port toward Cape Horn spilling a significant percentage of the water in the pool on the Lido deck over the retaining wall that surrounds the pool!  As you think of Cape Horn, the weather we had the day we "rounded the Horn" was what at least I would have expected for where we were.  Anything less and I think I would have been disappointed.  That said, hopefully some day I'll get back there when the conditions are better for photography than they were the day of my first visit to the ends of the Earth...

I hope that those who have the time will enjoy the descriptions of the various segments of this trip and the photographs embedded with the text.  The segments can be accessed individually using the buttons below.  Since I shot more than 40 Gigabytes of photographs, the tale of this journey is going to take some time to assemble. 

Personally, it was a trip that I'll never forget...