14 February 2010; Cape Horn and Drakes Passage.

Today was of course Valentine’s days where the Ladies onboard receive a red rose from the ship as a present. However we all received a present by means of very good weather at Cape Horn. Most of the time it storms here, hence the notorious reputation of this place, but today we did not have more wind than a force four and the occasional shower with a bit of sleet. Good conditions indeed. The cruise schedule called for scenic cruising and the good weather gave a nice opportunity to do so. It just had to be early to be able to continue our voyage timely to Antarctica. Thus we arrived as early as possible and that was at daybreak. Sunrise was at 06.15 and at the same time the Prinsendam sailed at a mile distance past Cape Horn.

This is also the location where our Chilean pilots are leaving the ship and that transfer, to a small Chilean navy vessel has to take place in sheltered waters at the North East side of the island. That gives two options; either slow down, turn around and go to the North East side or sail around the island at full speed and arrive at the same time at that pilot station. Doing that makes you circumnavigate the island. People seldom see Cape Horn from the other side, so there I went. By 0700 I was at the pilot station as scheduled; and – not scheduled- but appreciated, the sun came out and shone over Cape Horn, the Coastguard station and the monument.

Cape Horn from the South as it must have been seen by countless square rigger sailors in the past hoping for a safe passage around the Horn.

Cape Horn island as seen from the pilot station area with the Coastguard Station and the monument. The little cruise ship under the cliff is the Mar Australis which is landing guests there in zodiacs.

The Chilean navy vessel that was used to take the pilots off was not exactly made for this sort of work and in the end I had to bring the Prinsendam alongside that boat instead of the other way around as was intended. By 0745 we were for the second time abeam of Cape Horn and then turned to the South heading towards Antarctica to commence our scenic cruising there sometime tomorrow afternoon. Our guests will receive a certificate to remind them they were at Cape Horn and as I had asked the navigator to plot the ships position on a detailed chart every 10 minutes, we could add a copy of this chartlet to the back of the certificate. This had been a most extraordinary good call.

The Prinsendam coming alongside the Pilot boat.

From now on, we are really in the hands of the elements, as the ice shelf dictates the weather and as a result it is very changeable and the weather predictions seldom correct. This is where our expedition part of the cruise really starts. We have to travel about 540 miles to get there and the weather will dictate how fast that will go. Today the wind and swell were Southerly, thus against us, but still the weather was very good compared to what it can be here. It was just very cold.

On the bridge we had our sessions of reviewing the routes that we would like to take (subject to extremely much change, due to icebergs and or bad visibility) and we devised a Plan A, B, C and D. As a guide and adviser we have Captain Toomey onboard under the official title of Ice Pilot. He is a retired Ice breaker captain with over 30 trips to the Antarctic and will use his experience to advise us about how to deal with ice bergs and other icy stuff.

For the narration and nature side we have an expedition leader onboard called John Splettstoesser who has spent most of his life in this area as a scientist and is one of the foremost naturalists for this area. He has made over a 100 cruises and is kept in such high esteem by the scientific world that they named a glacier and a mountain after him. So we have two very capable people with us to show us what this place is all about.

For the weather, we have hooked up with the Chilean Coastguard who sends us every six hours the best update that they can produce but it will always be a weather forecast with a large amount of un-predictability in it. All the ships in this area, there about 15 cruise and expedition ships milling around here at the moment, are sending in every 4 to 6 hours weather observations, to give the weather stations as much data as possible. It improves the forecasts and it all helps to keep an overview of what is going on. Still over a distance of 100 miles the sun can shine at one end and it can snow at another end. This evening at 9 pm. we passed the 60oS where according to the IAATO treaty, Antarctica starts. It is going to be very interesting.

The proof; that all on board now are Cape Horn sailors and circumnavigators.