It had always been a life-long ambition to visit the notorious Cape Horn located on Isla Hornos at the southern end of Chile in South America as I had always loved the stories of ancestors who left the UK on clipper sailing ships bound for the New World. The Nelson was a clipper sailing ship which brought my GG GF Robert Harcus and his family from the Orkney Isles to Port Chalmers, Dunedin, NZ in 1874. The journey time port to port to NZ took a respectable 91 days, normally these voyages would take about 100 days. Before the Panama canal opened in 1914, the clippers used the Cape Horn route on their return journeys and many seafarers were lost in the perilous seas of the Drake Passage when rounding the Horn. The Nelson made it to Cape Horn in a fast 19 days on her return from NZ in 1875 and successfully rounded the Horn.
In March 2020, we landed on Cape Horn. After clambering into inflatable Zodiac boats at the stern of our cruise ship, the Stella Australis, we held on and sped off to our landing point at the bottom of a cliff.
Cape Horn Monument - in memory of the 10,000 seafarers who died rounding the Horn. The eye can see the silhouette of an albatross that awaits you at the ‘end of the world’.
We were lucky the weather was favourable for the landing early that morning and once the rope was secured we stepped onto the rock and climbed up many steep steps to the grassy headland at the top. The panoramic view was stunning and we walked to the giant Cape Horn Monument, the Lighthouse and tiny chapel Stella Maris also dedicated to those who had lost their lives rounding Cape Horn. Of course the clipper ships would not be bothered with the views or landing on this inhospitable rock, their task was to round the Horn as safely as possible and to never look back. It was an awesome experience to finally visit this part of the world before Antarctica, at a latitude of nearly 56 degrees south and one I will never forget.
