Rounding Cape Horn

Posted on February 12, 2017 by borysSNORC

Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and it is located on the tiny island of Hornos Isla – named after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands. Cape Horn is the northern boundary edge of the Drake Passage and is also the point where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans collide; it is known for being particularly hazardous to navigate due to excessively strong winds, huge swell (not today), strong ocean currents and even icebergs which occur up to 50°, even in mid-summer (mid Feb).

“Rounding the Horn”, which we are doing this morning, is traditionally understood to involve sailing from 50° degrees South on one coast, traversing from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean (or vice versa) to 50° South on the other coast – the two benchmark latitudes represent a particularly difficult and time consuming endeavour and it involves travelling some 930 miles.

Today we have excellent calm conditions, not a lot of swell, the waves are nothing to be concerned about, but you can certainly feel the 75-80 knot Antarctic winds buffeting the ship about. There’s also a weird sideways drift feeling happening occasionally, which is probably the strong ocean currents pushing the ship around. I could be wrong, but I thought I heard the ship’s sideways thrusters working intermittently, which could be a way of attempting to counteract the current from pushing us off course? Not sure, I’ll have to ask one of the crew later.

Cape Horn has been considered one of these most treacherous shipping routes int he world. Sailing conditions in the Southern Ocean are fierce at the extreme southern latitude of 56° South… to give some reference, the southern tip of Africa is only 35° South, and Stewart Island at the southern tip of New Zealand is only 47° South. Below 40° South, winds can blow from west to east around the world almost interrupted, which is where the ‘roaring forties’ name comes from.

I think most people have heard of the ‘roaring forties’, but not being from a sailing type background, I’ve never heard of the ‘furious fifties’ or the ‘screaming sixties’ before, but in the middle of that, is where we are right now. The winds are hazardous enough that ships travelling to the east tend to stay in the Straits of Magellan (and that is perilous enough in itself!) up in the northern forties if possible; however rounding Cape Horn requires ships to press south to 56° South which is smack-bang in the middle of the fiercest winds. The weather here is really changeable as well, as we approached the Cape, it was sunny, blue skies, windy of course, and a clear outlook; travel a few minutes, literally just a few minutes, and a few miles further south, and the skies have turned moody, the wind has picked up to ‘I can’t hear myself think’. This is because the winds are exacerbated here by the funnelling effect of the Andes Mountain range and the Antarctic Peninsular which forces any prevailing winds into the narrow Drake Passage.
Naturally, strong winds tend to cause correspondingly large waves, and these large swells can roll around the entire Southern Ocean free of any interruption of land – that is until they hit the shallow waters to the south of the Horn, which causes them to be shorter (closer together) and steeper – again causing an additional hazard to ships as they have no time to recover from one steep wave before encountering the next. And if the strong eastward current through the Drake Passage meets an opposing east wind, this can have the effect of even further building up the dangerous waves. Oh, but wait… there’s more! On top of these ‘normal’ conditions, the area west of the Horn frequently experiences ‘rogue waves’ which can attain heights of up to 30 fucking metres! (98 feet!!!) OMG…! Between the horrid wind conditions, the treacherous currents, hazardous waves and oh dear lord, terrifying rogue waves, and ICEBERGS, it makes you wonder why anyone would attempt to sail around Cape Horn. It is no wonder that over the centuries, Cape Horn has gained notoriety as the most dangerous shipping passage in the world, has seen numerous shipwrecks, and has become known as a ‘sailor’s graveyard’. I can’t imagine someone in the 16th century with comparatively rudimentary navigational equipment and little to no support if something goes wrong, being too happy about having to ‘Round the Horn’ at all… but the Straits were just as treacherous with their own hellish windy conditions. As we moved further around, we find things here are very changeable, as we sailed towards the Cape, it was sunny, mild and hardly any swell, but not five minutes later, the sky is turning moody, the swell has picked up, the currents are pushing the ship about, we are looking at a bit of rain and the wind. OMG, the wind! It’s unbelievable. On the outer decks, we are all leaning into the (bitingly cold!) winds to avoiding falling over. Opening the doors to the open decks has become a two person job, and it’s beanies and windbreakers for everyone, and the ship’s flags are snapping sharply. But then, just as our shore expert, Hutch, said, “Ladies and gentleman, you have now ‘Rounded Cape Horn, and we are officially in the Atlantic Ocean”, the wind dropped to almost nothing, it was weirdly still for a calm minute or so, and this is going to sound really twee, but a small rainbow appeared in the distance right over the Cape.
Traditionally, sailors who have rounded Cape Horn were entitled to wear a gold hoop earring in the left ear – the ear which would have been facing the Horn in a typical eastbound passage, like ours. Additionally, they say that these seasoned sailors were allowed to dine with one foot on the table, though for the life of me, why this is a ‘thing’ I don’t know. A sailor who had also round the Cape of Good Hope was allowed to dine with both feet up on the table. Feet on tables aside, it just sounds like good excuse to go buy some nice hoop earrings if you ask me. 😉 Seriously though – I don’t think our Captain would care which Horn you had rounded, if you had a go at putting your feet up on the table in the Main Dining Room, you might find yourself put off at the next port!

It was quite the experience watching the ship Round the Horn and seeing the rapid changes in the weather – even though we have what would be called damn near perfect weather for this area. I’m having another one of those moments where I’m thinking… Wow, just 15 months ago I was on the Caribbean Princess crossing 66° North into the Arctic Circle near Iceland, and now here I am literally round the bottom of the world at Cape Horn!

I never expected I’d be off travelling the world and doing all these amazing things. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again – I have no idea whose life I am living, but I am really getting worried they are going to want it back!

Amalia Glacier, Chile

Posted on February 9, 2017 by borysSNORC

This morning we got the opportunity to see the Amalia Glacier, and to be honest, after the Captain’s midday announcements yesterday, I didn’t think we would get to see it at all. The weather forecast was for heavy fog and rain, and Capt Arma was apologising in advance if the fog horns ‘were to be disturbing any passenger’ (he’s adorable).

Anyway, we arrived in the channel quite early and from our cabin on Deck 11 forward (Sea Princess A212 if anyone wants to look it up on a deck plan), just under/behind the bridge – I could see from our cabin:

Pretty! The Amalia Glacier (aka the Skua Glacier) is in the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park in Chile. The glacier starts in the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields and originates at the Recleus volcano – it is actually eroding the northern slope of that volcano.

The glacier had actually retreated from the 40s to the 80s by about 8 km, and I thought our on guide expert dude said it had retreated double that since then :/ (need to confirm that). A lot of people you talk to down here are very worried about climate change. Dixie in Valparaiso was talking about severe coastal erosion over the last two decades, and Jaime in Puerto Varas was saying that they usually only have weather in the mid-20s during summer, but that the last few summers have seen them copping high temperatures of 34C! Not only that, but people are able to swim in the water in the glacial streams – which they all say was impossible when they were kids.

Cruising the glaciers is truly amazing, this one was still several kilometres from us, but while we were here, a small ship carrying around 200 passengers, the Skorpios II, came up to the glacier and went so close we could barely see if – it looked like a rock near the face of the glacier. Skoprios operates out of Punta Arenas and they do 3-night trips to come see the glaciers in this area… definitely adding that to the Bucket List.

Petrohue Falls, Chilean Lake District

Posted on February 6, 2017 by borysSNORC

Today turned out to be a very exciting and interesting day –

we got to meet Jaime, who is going to be taking us to Machu Picchu in March… and if you didn’t hear me going ‘SQUEE!’ really loud just then, you mustn’t have been paying attention these last 18 months!
we got our first glimpses of the amazing landscapes of Patagonia – absolutely amazing, and
I managed to catch up with everyone in my family back home today which makes for a very good day indeed!

Started out with another ‘hurry up and wait’ tender process. We were all marshalled together to all be on the same tender and even though we were all up and at ‘em very early, another hour wait for a tender. Oh well, we sat and chatted and were off as soon as may be. Jaime met us at the port, and greeted me like an old friend – big hugs and kisses on both cheeks… we have been emailing back and forth since last March about all these tours, and yes, I felt like I was greeting someone I knew quite well, rather than meeting him of the first time!

Our bus driver Pedro showed us to our lovely modern bus and we were off and away from Puerto Montt, heading for our first destination – the Vincent Perez Rosales National Park. On the way, Jaime gave us a fantastic commentary on the history and geography of the area… Puerto Montt was named for the President of Chile from 1851 to 1861, Manuel Montt. Nearby Puerto Varas, Jaime’s home town, was named for his second in command, Antonio Varas, who was his Interior Minister at that time. It is most famous for its beautiful Patagonian scenery, its glacial and volcanic geography, its location nestled in the Andes Mountain range and its unique blend of Spanish, German and indigenous South American Indian cultures.

Oh, and it’s two enormous active but currently dormant volcanoes, that dominate the horizons – Volcán Calbuco and Volcán Osorno.

We made our way to the Petrohue Falls (smoky falls) which are really a large set of glacial rapids that the Petrohue River tumbles picturesquely towards the Todos los Santos Lake (All Saints Lake, found on All Saints Day apparently). The waterfall is inside the V.Perez Rosales Nation Park, and is caused by the glacial erosion through the basaltic lava (andesite) stemming form the Orsono Volcano… which itself sits between the Todos los Santos and Llanquihue Lakes. These lakes were originally one large lake until Orsono erupted and divided it into two large seperate freshwater lakes. The rocks surrounding the waterfalls look all smooth and polished compared to other surrounding rocks, and this is due to the water carrying a great deal of sand and silt, which erodes the basaltic lava rock quite readily.

At the lookouts near the falls, the views of the volcano range from positively breathtaking to, ‘what volcano?’, due to low clouds and heavy weather. We were fortunate enough to be here on a beautiful clear day with visibility for miles. Many, many photos later…

Petrohue River/Rapids

Volcanic ash – above; volcanic rubble – below

Nearby, Jaime took us on a short nature walk to a little visited local spot which he liked to call his “little piece of paradise”. We walked through some dense rainforest on a sandy little track that was made of dense volcanic sand that crunches underfoot. Stopping to look at a large cliff of rocks that was once magma, but now covered in lichens and mosses, and seeing a fracture right through it caused by more recent volcanic activity. We also got a lesson on the local myrtle trees… some of which are green and covered in mosses and lichen, and some of which are orange. The orange trees, are cold – I mean, really cold to touch. These orange trunked myrtle trees only grow in areas with LOTS of water, and their trunks are constantly drawing up water from the ground – which around here is glacially cold. During hot weather, locals like to sit with these cold trees in the shade and cool down.

The entire area here was covered volcanic ash when the Calbulco Volcano erupted in 2015 with little warning. A large eruption column, visible from space, went into the atmosphere and the enormous ash cloud shut down airports. As far away as Puerto Varas (49kms away), roads were covered with fine volcanic ash up to two metres deep. The closer areas to the eruption were covered in what looks like volcanic sand, and closer still, what looks like small rubble. (The picture below of the eruption was borrowed from Wikipedia – I can’t imagine what it would be like living next to a time bomb like this).

(pic above from Wikipedia)

After this we went for a short drive to the Emerald Lake, or Lago Esmerelda. While the earlier waters of the Petrohue River were a deep beautiful green from the clear glacial water, here the completely different, but equally vibrant green colour of the water is coming from a natural algae. Unfortunately the lake, which we would call a billabong at the moment, is cut off from the main Lago Llanquihue, and it is getting stagnant, and another reddish algae or moss appears to be taking over the lake. Jaime was talking with the National Park Ranger and it seems they are digging out the sandbar separating the lake and the billabong every morning, but they are fighting an uphill battle as holiday makers and kids seem to think it is fun to build the sand dam back into place. A working bee of some sort is planned to come break it down properly, as no machinery can be brought in to do the job.

After our visit to the lake, we stopped in at a local cafeteria for a quick bite to eat. We saw some llamas here that the owner kept for his wife to spin and knit into scarves and hats to sell to the tourists, and we all stopped for a bite to eat. We were warned that the sandwiches were large and that two people could share, but it turns out that one sandwich could probably feed four! Salmon is another big industry here, so we took the opportunity to try a salmon sandwich which was more like a salmon cob loaf!

View from lunch:

The next stop was the beautiful little township of Puerta Varas, also known as “La chided de las rosas” or “the city of roses”. And covered in roses it is… with the rich volcanic soil and the cool temperatures and full sun, roses seem to grow everywhere. We were informed that picking the roses is not allowed, and will attract a fine from the police – except on Valentine’s Day, where each man is allowed to pick a rose for his lover. I asked Jaime ‘but what if you have more than one lover?’ And he cheekily replied, that you will need to go back and get a second one later.

Puerto Varas is well known for its charming traditional German architecture. The area, is also known as the “Llanquihue Lake Colonisation Territory”, due to it being largely settled by German immigrants, who were enticed to the region in the 19C with promises of land – one piece of land for each man, and an additional piece of land for each of his sons, up to four pieces of land per family. Houses are built using alerce wood and fashioned with tools brought over from Europe with the original 19thC immigrants, so they are not surprisingly all built in a decidedly Bavarian/alpine style. If you didn’t know any better, and didn’t turn around to look at the enormous lake and huge volcanos behind you, you could easily believe yourself in Germany somewhere! We had an opportunity to check out some of the handicraft shops, though being a Sunday, meant that many stores were closed and thus our credit cards were safe!

We had a lovely wander around the town, so many quaint pubs and restaurants, before heading back to Puerto Montt. It was now getting to late afternoon, the hottest part of the day and all the locals were flooding to the ‘beaches’ of the lake and the harbour for a swim in the freezing cold waters. They looked like they were having fun – but I think when you are from Queensland, that sort of swimming is for ‘other’ people!

We said our good-byes to Jaime, with hugs and a fond ‘See you in Ecuador!’… Tomorrow : Chacbuco, which apparently is a real place and not just a swift spiritual kick to the head!