2025_26 Oosterdam, Cape Horn, Chile...

 The crossing of the Drake Passage was again quite mild.  We arrived at Cape Horn around 4 pm.  Despite the chill, gale force winds, and showers, the visibility was clear, giving us a great view of the rocks that make up the Cape Horn.  Over the past 400 years, this is the spot where 800 ships have floundered and 10,000 sailors have lost their lives.  A fearsome reputation indeed. At the southernmost tip of South America in Chile’s Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage, where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.  Until the Panama Canal opened in 1914, it was the main route for ships sailing from east to west. The route is known as one of the most challenging and hazardous stretches of water in the world and is notoriously referred to as a “sailors’ graveyard.”  Cape Horn is located on the remote and rocky Hornos Island and is maintained by the Chilean Navy.  A Chilean family lives there for about six months at a time, along with a lighthouse and a silhouette monument of albatross flying both east and west, dedicated to the sailors who lost their lives attempting to sail around the Cape.  Next to the lighthouse there is a tiny wooden chapel, the size of a shed. It was called Star of the Seas and is South America’s southernmost church and is dedicated to the many mariners who lost their lives at sea here over the centuries.  After safely rounding the Cape we set sail for Ushuaia