Cape Horn

Our expedition leader Julio woke us up at 6:30am to advise us that he’d garnered permission from the Chilean government (he’s chileno, so I am sure that helped) to approach Cape Horn. Ships are not allowed to come within 12 miles without explicit permission from Chile, but we were able to approach much closer. Cape Horn is the most southerly point of South America, and the waters around the Cape are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs.





You can see in this picture how the water color changes as you approach the Cape (it's much more pronounced in real life):


After breakfast, I took an engine room tour. It was cool to see the mechanics of keeping this ship moving. We also saw the reverse osmosis room where they desalinate water for use onboard (it tastes so fresh) and the sewer room where they treat water before releasing it back into the ocean.




My fellow passengers are quite fun, and we’re having a good time even when we can’t leave the ship. The crew and staff are incredibly knowledgeable about what seems to be an endless array of topics, but even the passengers seem brighter than average. Some are highly educated (one guy has both an MD and a PhD in addition to two different undergrad degrees). Many are well-traveled, with wonderful traveling stories to tell. And a significant portion of the ship has now set foot on all 7 continents (including one girl who’s only 25!). I still need to visit Australia before I can join their club.

This trip has the most interesting demographic of travel companions. Some families are here (a dad who was diagnosed with cancer is here with his wife, two children, and son-in-law; a couple is here with their 17-year old son); many singles are here (as young as early 20s and as old as 79); and marrieds are here without their spouses (husbands without their wives, wives without their husbands). I am sure that’s partly a result of this being an expensive and extreme trip, so most of us didn’t try to persuade anyone else to come. I do think there are slightly more women than men aboard, which I never would have expected. [I checked, and there are 60 women and 59 men aboard as passengers.]

The highlight of today was a longer game of Uno. We sat on the floor in the hallway and played a 4-person game of Uno. As people grew tired (or needed to take the engine room tour), they would hand off their cards to someone else. The game continued for ~5 hours until someone finally won (and of course, I can’t even recall who won).

The funniest memory I have of today was when we were talking about camel humps. I said to a group of folks “Guess what their hump is made of.” And everyone guessed water. I said, “No, it’s something you probably never considered.” And Lauren answered “Polystyrene.” LOL! I am definitely going to miss my fellow passengers…