Wanderung 23

To the End of the World!

November - December 2010

Friday, December 3rd, Around Cape Horn

Since we were scheduled to start our cruising around Cape Horn at 7:00 a.m., we put off breakfast in favor of donning our foul weather gear (including our new, just-purchased Patagonian tie-down hats with ear flaps!) and headed for the Crow's Nest observation area. Cape Horn is on the southernmost tip of Cape Horn Island, and since the weather permitted it, our captain circled the island counterclockwise.

I say "weather permitted" but although this was summertime, it was as cold as the devil and we endured bouts of freezing rain and sleet during our 1-hour circumnavigation of the island. In fact, we couldn't stand to be out on deck whilst the ship was headed into the wind because the 30 mph or so induced breeze was just bone-chilling. The North part of Cape Horn Island is low, rounded, and barren, but as we circled around to the south we encountered the Cathedral Rocks, some rock spires or pinnacles carved by countless years of being pounded by the open ocean.

Fortunately, by the time the Veendam had circumnavigated the island and had come back to the main cliff of Cape Horn, it was headed in the same direction as the prevailing wind, so we could stay on deck quite comfortably. Cape Horn itself was quite impressive, a rocky cliff face shaped roughly like the Rock of Gibraltar but maybe half that size. The spires carved out along the edges of the cliff gave it a remarkable and truly unique appearance in my opinion, but I was so glad we were circumnavigating it in the comfort of a cruise ship rather than enduring the elements as did the sailors of the old square-rigged sailing ships that had such a rough time crossing between the oceans there. At one point just South of Cape Horn the Veendam had its stern in the Pacific Ocean and its bow in the Atlantic, a rather unique position.

Having completed a circuit of Cape Horn Island, we continued sailing easterly and then northeast on a course for the Falkland Islands, which was our next port of call. Inside, we attended a question-and-answer session with the ship's captain, chief engineer, and hotel manager, and then a champagne brunch for the repeat Holland America customers. There we chatted amiably with a Canadian couple who had gone kayaking during our stop in Puerto Montt and were scheduled to take a 3.5 mile hike to see birdlife in the Falklands, assuming the weather would be calm enough to allow tendering to shore the next morning.

Unfortunately, I was so involved with chatting that I let the time get away from me, so we were a bit late for Missy's Spanish class at 12:30, but we did catch the last part of that and got her invaluable handout on the Spanish words for numbers, colors, and sizes. We were trying to get to each of her sessions in the hopes that by the end we would have at the very least a fairly complete set of handouts to take along on our next trip to Spanish-speaking lands.

That afternoon we relaxed in the cabin for a bit, interrupting our tranquil view of the passing waves only to attend Chris's presentation on the history of Cape Horn, which turned out to be named for the city of Hoorn, Holland, rather than for its rugged physical appearance as I had always assumed. Cape Horn had been circumnavigated by imperial explorers such as Magellan, privateers such as Drake, scientists such as the Foster brothers, and numerous albeit unnamed seal hunters and, later on, whalers.

The evening show was another nice amalgam of songs, this time on a Las Vegas theme. The singers did a credible job although I thought the soprano had a rather light voice. However, I was occasionally frustrated that they sang mostly medleys or assorted song fragments rather than singing an entire song. In particular, I remember Doris Day singing three verses of "Que Sera, Sera" and the soprano only sang the first two, which left me with a curious feeling of incompleteness. But all that was a small quibble. A larger quibble was that they had amped the voices so much that Monika was covering her ears for the last part of the performance. I had, based on earlier performances, brought my ear plugs with and with those inserted could concentrate on the music and voices rather than pain in my eardrums, but I felt sorry for her. Still, we both enjoyed the performance and afterwards joined the elephant on our bed and read for an hour or two before turning in for the night.

Copyright 2011 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Index
Prolog Map of Cruise around Cape Horn Epilog

November 2010
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30
December 2010
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31

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