1 Feb - Cape Horn, Changeable Weather (loads of pictures)...

'round Cape Horn at LAST!

The Commodore announced that we would be rounding Cape Horn just after 4 pm and the weather forecast was "uncertain". This caused some surprise, because the sky was clear and very blue (see first photo below). However, it didn't take long before more inclement conditions set in and the ship started to really batter her way through big waves and high winds. There was great excitement as we approached the crossing point from one ocean to another and a great cheer went up when we crossed at 4:08 PM. The Cape was clearly visible off the starboard side and we had picked out a great location to view the crossing on deck 7. The still photos below don't portray how fierce the wind was at that time, bit I can tell you it was blowing like "one oh!".

Once past the Horn, the ship sailed on into the Beagle Channel where things were a lot calmer, although the landscape on either side of the ship became even more dramatic.

Everybody onboard was in high spirits after the adventures out on deck during the afternoon and a party atmosphere was evident in all bars, which I of course heroically visited to ensure accurate reportage for this blog (Ann didn't believe that one either).

As the sunset, the ship rounded a small headland and sailed into Ushuaia (pronounced by me as: uch-way-ya) harbour. From our balcony we could see hundreds of flashlights from cameras going off, hopefully this will mean we get a warm reception tomorrow. 

Early afternoon approaching Cape Horn. A bit windy with marvelous blue sky and sea.

45 minutes later, high winds, rain and heavy swell. This is a picture of the bow wave taken through a window on deck 3.

The clock shows the time just after the crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific was announced.

Probably Cape Horn, although to be fair, it could be some other headland!

Van Daemons Island (maybe or maybe not, after all, once you've seen one island...)

A stormy sunset after rounding the Horn!

More Later...