Who Wants to Round the Horn?

[Captain Smollett]

I got curious about this after looking at the List of Solo Circumnavigator's on the Joshua Slocum Society web site.  (Note the number in under-30 footers and the large percentage of solo circumnavigators in 32 foot or under boats.  :) )

I am also curious, though, why are the BOC/Around Alone and other around-the-world racers not listed on this list? They round the stormy capes and the water of three oceans touch their hulls.

[Frank]

I'll take the canal. I got caught out in a full gale once in the gulf stream....NOT fun. The horn would be 10times worst. OK OK ....I'm a wuss

[Captain Smollett]

why are the BOC/Around Alone and other around-the-world racers not listed on this list?

Okay, I think I can answer my own question.  To 'qualify' as a solo circumnavigator, one can receive NO HELP in moving the boat forward.  So, I take it that since the race boats generally get towed to/from start and finish lines, that is why they don't qualify under these rules.

[Captain Smollett]

The horn would be 10times worst. OK OK ....I'm a wuss

I hear you.  I would absolutely LOVE to see Cape Horn and visit some of the historical tribal sites along the SW coast of Chile.  Philosophically speaking, I am fascinated by a place THAT inhospitable on the earth and yet was inhabited.  In short, it would be a "trip" to see it, but getting there ... ?

[Fortis]

Nowadays, the bueracracy surrounding sailing near Tierra Del Fuego and Cape Horn is more fearsome then the weather one may find there.
The Chilean governement and Coast Guard are not at all fans of small visiting sailboats in the region and will make you bleed money, insurance forms, certifications and sundry other paperwork seemingly invented on the spot.

This is in part due to the the very real dangers that they have faced in rescuing the inept and unlucky over the years, but it also seams to have something to do with rigurously prtecting the territory of local charter companies (which given the total collapse of the region's sheep and cattle farms is about the only remaining source of income other then massive land sales to overseas investors).

In short, The Chileans seem to have taken a graduate courseform the Indian bueracracy machine in how to say "no" and charge outrageous permit fees for just about anything at all that you might want to do...and then made a quantum leap forwards in the mindset that drives it.


My preffered route is a hugely long course that my wife has dubbed the "butterfly route"...but hey, it gets us cruising time along BOTH sides of a number of continents and catches a bunch of remote islands that would otherwise be missed (as well as doing both the northern and southern atlantic circle-route in the same trip).

By the way, a valid option for those wanting to do the Panama Cannal without the "pain"...There is a way that is economically efficient for our size of boats.

As prices have risen astronomicaly and requirements for "rope handlers"  and insurance have climbed, more and mroe small boat cruisers are contracting with trucking companies to haul the boat out, unstep the mast and truck the boat across the ismuss on the highway. Cheaper and quicker while providing a chance to do a maintenance and repair routine while the boat is out of the water and the mast is off.
Not as romantic, sure...but pretty viable and much much cheaper!



Alex.

Alex.

[CharlieJ]

The monument on Cape Horn, or properly Hoorn Island. It's a sculpure of an albatross in flight.



You can take day trips there from Puntas Arenas, via outboard , to the back side of Horn Island and climb the stairs up to the monument. There is even an internet cafe available in Puntas Arenas, which is about 15 miles north. The southern most city in the world.

[Captain Smollett]

I wonder how long a wait to get so much blue sky in that photo?   ;D

[Tweed]

Interesting views :-)

You wouldn't have to wait long for a blue sky, blue skys are the norm in these latitudes, usually accompanied by a fair breeze though!

Errrr Punta Arenas is a bit more than 15 miles from the Horn, and you wouldn't get there in a day trip, unless it was by air! Haven't got a chart to hand, but PA is about 150 - 200 miles from the horn as the crow flies, rather further through the channels.

I'm somewhat amused but the comments about how people can live in such an inhospitable climate :-) Everybody in the central US and north survives much more severe winters than us down here at the pointy end of South America, where at sea level the temperature doesn't go a lot below freezing.

Cheers
Chris
Stanley, Falkland islands

[Captain Smollett]

Greetings Chris!

Your comments are interesting about the relative climates of US and the southern tip of SA.  I was basing my 'assumption' on photos I've seen and books I've read about the area and the past indigenous Indian cultures, mostly along the southern W coast of Chile. 

It is GREAT to have someone with "local knowledge" here on the board.  You may look forward to many questions!   ;D

[AdriftAtSea]

Welcome Chris.

I would actually like to round Cape Horn.  I think it would be a challenge, but one I'd like to do someday.  I don't know if I'd do it in my current boat, but who knows. :D

[Oldrig]

Here's a shameless plug:

If you're interested in rounding the Horn, or if you're not sure what it is all about, read "Rounding the Horn" by Dallas Murphy (Basic Books, 2004).

It's a fascinating mixture of history and personal experience, including the author's run-in with Chilean bureaucracy.

After reading it, you might well want to give it a try, but probably not in a small boat.

--Joe

P.S. Another wild one, of course, is "Berserk," by David Mercy. He crossed the Drake passage in an Albin Vega with a 9 hp outboard, a crazy Norwegian skipper and an Argentine shipmate who went crazy halfway across.

I hope this post isn't in the wrong place.

[CapnK]

Welcome aboard, Chris! Like Capt. S said, good to have a "there-local" around. :)

I've read about how complicated it has become to make a rounding *if* you plan on making a landfall. The reasoning I heard was because rescues are so (relatively) frequent and expensive. Seems like if you were going to jump through all the hoops they demand now, you might as well stay and cruise the coast a while, a la Hal Roth and wife in "Two Against Cape Horn" (great book, btw).

I'd be willing to sign a disclaimer, and avoid all that mess... ;)

My vote is for west-to-east, then come up the eastern side of SA and sample some of the delights that the various cultures along that route have to offer on the way home. Maybe time it for a visit to Carnival... :)

[Tweed]

Thanks for the welcomes. I'm glad to be here :-)

I've not been around the horn yet, nearest I guess is through (almost) the straights of Magellan, but that wasn't under sail. I say almost because I haven't quite been out the other side yet.

I'd quite like to do the horn sometime and qualify to wear the ear ring, incidentally that will be the only piece of jewllery that I will conceed to wearing. Not sure exactly what the rules are but I think it has to be rounded as part of a 2000+ mile voyage under sail only with the end ports in different oceans. Some people buy the priviledge by taking a ticket on something like the Barque Europa http://www.barkeuropa.com/ but I prefer the romance of one man and his boat, or better the romance of one man, one woman, and their boat.

We usually get a few victims of the Horn wash in every summer season, and most of the big ocean races result in somebody poping for repairs. I have made a few friends that way. I helped out in a small way getting Bruce Schwabb back on the road, think he was the most recent racing visitor.

Fair winds
Chris

[Captain Smollett]

I agree that if a circumnavigation lies in my future it will most likely be W -> E.  The thought of going the "wrong way around" has a certain romantic appeal, but just the thought of going to one of the stormy capes in a small boat sounds challenging enough, imo.

Oddly enough, I have little interest in crossing the Panama Canal and NO interest in crossing the Suez.  I'm not saying I would never cross Panama - there is a lot of history and beauty there.  My objections are mostly cost, hassle and probability of damage due to someone ELSE'S negligence.  Really, at this point I think I'd be more likely to truck a boat across than go through the canal.

Maybe that's just me.

[Sonnie]

I have been down in the southern ocean (The Drake passage, Buenos Aires to the Antarcitic peninsula) and it was AMAZING. I was on an ex-russian expedition vessel "Akedmic Ioff" Chris- you may remeber the boat as it stopped regularly in the Falklands at Port Stanley, as I did on this trip - Nice place too! Anywhooo, you can really feel the sea change as you pass out from the lee of South America. We would go up to the top deck at night after a glass of chardonnay (and by "a" I mean "many" and by "chardonnay" I mean "Tall-boys") and stand on the spray and rain soaked steel deck and hold on to one side of the boats rail. Then as the wave heeled the boat, you would let go and try to gracefully slide to the other side (about 40 ft.) without landing on your ass. This game worked best with 30-40 knot winds and big seas, which we had plenty of.

Would I do it again? Not for the life of me in anything less than 300 feet! (yeah I know, I know) I'm sure it would be a heck of a trip though in a small boat, but not for me - Good luck to those of you who are daring(crazy) enough!

Cheers,
Sonnie

[CapnK]

We would go up to the top deck at night after a glass of chardonnay (and by "a" I mean "many" and by "chardonnay" I mean "Tall-boys") and stand on the spray and rain soaked steel deck...

LOL, Sonnie. :D I guess it is a crazy kind of thing to want to do, but I think it's less crazy than summitting Everest. I mean, at least you are *going somewhere* beyond the one spot, not just going to that spot and then reversing course... :)

Plus, there is a lot more breathable oxygen at the Horn, compared to Everest. Oxygen is a good thing, in my experience... :D

[Captain Smollett]

The two are very similar in my opinion.  Forget the notion of "man against nature;"  in my view, they are both "man against himself."  The struggle is internal - "do *I* have what it takes to survive?"  That's a tough question to face, even if the "what it takes" is a little bit of luck.

That you are going somewhere when crossing The Horn is a plus.  That can be true with Everest as well, but the journey is mostly inside. 

(Or, you CAN go down Everest via a different route than you went up - for example, the common SE Ridge route UP and the NW Ridge route, which Messner took solo and without oxygen, down).  :)

Just finished Dave and Jaja Martin's book "Into the Light."  They found their challenge by sailing their 33 footer to Spitsbergen, over 800 miles north of the Artic Circle.

[pamdemonium]

ahh geez, just when I am thinking about settling down and getting a real job, I start reading this.  Not that a circumnavigation hasn't always been on the calendar, but I get ancy thinking about it.  Yes to  Cape Horn, please.  Can I have another travel assignment please?

[CapnK]

ahh geez, just when I am thinking about settling down and getting a real job

HERESY!!!

;D :D ;D :D ;D

[castawaysailor]

Always wanted to double the horn; maybe in a couple years