Sunday 14 February 2010

Part 2 - DAY 33 Feb 14 - Scenic Cruising Cape Horn & Drakes Passage

Where do we begin?

Let me firstly just say that the ship is celebrating the Chinese New Year today - the Year of the Tiger. So many of the public rooms have been decorated accordingly and this is what greeted me as I went up to the Lido restaurant this morning. It appears that the Chinese annual celebration got preference over Valentine who was relegated to yesterday as the “Sweetheart Ball”!

This is an amazing morning as we are due to circumnavigate the world’s most southerly land, CAPE HORN which lies at an extreme 56 degrees south. This whole area is infamous as one of the most dangerous shipping passages in the world.

The winds can blow from west to east uninterrupted by land and the resulting waves can attain enormous size. In addition the ‘Horn’ is notorious for ‘freak or rogue waves’, which can reach heights of 100 feet (30 metres). In fact this very ship, the Prinsendam, was hit by two such waves at exactly this spot during its 2007 circumnavigation of South America. As a result it had to steam (or was it limp) back to Ushuaia for repairs and replenishment of all kinds of bits and pieces destroyed in the debacle. It stayed in the port three days while this was all sorted out. Blog and e-mail accounts of this ‘happening’ from on board passengers are legend.

With this background in mind I found it hard to believe the wonderful sea state we found ourselves in when I woke shortly after 5 o’clock.

I was quickly on deck, coffee in hand, to test the elements. Although the sun had not risen it was possible to see the many islands around us. It was cold but nothing like what I expected from all my previous research. Even the wind had dropped from the previous night and it was just a little pleasant walking around the deck.

At about 6.15, after I had had some breakfast, the Captain came on the airwaves to say that in 15 minutes time the ship would start its circumnavigation of the Cape Horn Island. He suggested we would be here for a few hours so there was plenty of time for photo opportunities.

Surprisingly few people were about to receive this message, which was not relayed to the cabins.

Our friend Lin was up and around and we both managed to take pictures of each other with the ‘Island’ in the background.

Maria was still in slumber-land but would need to be awakened soon or miss this wonderful experience.

One lady passenger approached us and asked what was happening and had she missed anything? I explained that we were approaching Cape Horn and we would then circumnavigate it. The glazed look indicated that I should explain that this meant we would circle the island. The lady then asked how we would know we were there? I explained further that by circling the Horn we would probably get dizzy and therefore know. To my amazement she then asked if we would get very dizzy as we circled the Island? At this stage I withdrew back to the aft deck leaving the confused passenger to ponder on my words!

I did mange to persuade Maria to get on deck now and we were soon in camera mode snapping away at the amazing sights before us. And I really do mean amazing, spectacular, surreal, breathtaking, awesome….I suppose you get the message.

The sun was now out and shining brightly, the sea was calm, and the wind was non-existent. Frank Buckingham then came over the PA system to say that in the many many years that he had been ‘down here’ he had never know such benign conditions. He said this was quite exceptional weather and we were very lucky Grand Voyagers to have all the elements so much in our favour.

I’m not sure how many photos we took but it was in the hundreds I would think. The Horn itself with the little house and flag pole (manned by the Chilean Navy) were a real eye catcher as were the ever changing colours of the Island’s well weathered rock face as the sun beams lit up the scene before us.

The whole surround-ing area was a mass of little and not so little islands. Each was individual in appearance and with the ship continuing to round the Horn the views changed by the minute. We even managed to photo a rainbow that stayed with us for some time.

Another much smaller exploration passenger vessel was right up close to the Horn and as the weather was so excep-tionally good had dropped anchor and its tenders, presumably to let its passengers visit this iconic island.

As the ship changed direction we did find that after awhile the cold artic wind was beginning to take its affect and people were vanishing from the decks back into the warmth of the ship’s interior. However I found it hard to desert my station in case I missed out on just one more perfect picture opportunity.

A pilot boat soon approached us as we left the Horn to take off the two Chilean Captain Pilots that had been on board all the way from Valparaiso. They had done their stuff and we had survived the long journey down through the Inner Chilean Passage, the Chilean Fjords, and now through the Beagle Channel and onwards to Cape Horn. They had now of course been replaced by Captain Pat Toomey who is our Antarctic Pilot.

I know this is a much over worked expression but this was National Geographic country extra-ordinaire!

Our camera must having been running nearly red hot with the use it received during a near two-hour period of exquisite joy. This is what this voyage was all about.

In the midst of the picture taking I spotted Hotel Manager Françoise on the deck below stealing some time away from his office computer to take another once in a life time picture of the most notorious rock in the world. Thankfully its notoriety was not too apparent today anyway.

We heard from Frank that the assembled group on the bridge were also busy taking pictures as I’m sure none of them had ever enjoyed such fine weather down here at the end of the world.

This hopefully was a good omen for our long trip today and tonight through the Drake Passage down to Antarctica. This part of our voyage Maria, and presumably many other passengers, had been dreading but hopefully this fear may now all be in vain.

In his lunchtime address the Captain said that it was impossible to forecast weather down here in the Antarctic but current wind speeds were about 20 knots. He said that officially we would be in the Antarctic at about 9 tonight although not at our first station, Palmer, on Anvers Island, until about lunchtime tomorrow. Here we would be picking up a group of American scientists who would be giving us an insight into what scientific studies they carry out and other Antarctic relevant type information.

By early afternoon the Drake Passage was behaving itself slightly less well as the wind had now picked-up and walking round the ship was less easy than this morning. Ginger tablets were certainly in order now for poor Maria

3 comments:

  1. Ive just been told off as apparantly when "my face is in that blog" no one can get a responce from me! Another enjoyable read Mr Bradley - your extreme excitement is shining through even if the sun isnt! Loads of love Amsy xxx

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  2. Not sure that you were totaly satisfied with the weather conditions there Paul, I assume you wanted it rocking and rolling! Wow what an amazing day you had, a real sea adventure. Perhaps a suggestion for the Next TMYC summer cruise?
    Love pablo JNR

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