Monday 22 February 2010

Lazy Hazy Drake Days

Cape Horn island is named after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands.
We had a lovely smooth crossing of  Drake Passage which allowed us the time to cruise past this most famous of all nautical landmarks. The division between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans lies precisely on the meridian of Cape Horn and runs south to the Southern Ocean.  I think for many people this will be the only time in their life when they will be on three different oceans in two days.  Yesterday morning we were cruising north on the Southern Ocean.  When we crossed the Antarctic Convergence we entered the Atlantic ocean.  Today at around 17:30 we crossed from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean as we "rounded the Horn".  The next time we are at dinner with family and friends we can entertain them all by loudly proclaiming, "Yep.  I remember when I rounded the Horn...It was a very cool thing to do."     
Oh, I almost forgot to mention (lest you think we are still in the wrong ocean) that we did turn around and head back east into the Atlantic and continue on up to the Beagle Channel.
It was a wonderfully relaxing day with lots of lectures.  We also had an informal cocktail gathering in the early evening for an introduction to some of the other exciting Hurtigruten destinations.  Later our photographer presented a beautiful slideshow of the trip.
At 22:00 we attended a charity auction to raise funds for a variety of environmental organizations.