Shortly before breakfast the outline of Cape Horn began to emerge from the mists that so often enshroud this lonely and legendary point of land. Large numbers of Sooty Shearwaters and Black-browed Albatrosses spoke of the great productivity of the waters that swirl around the cape. The National Geographic Explorer was able to come within two miles of Horn Island (the southern-most island in the Wollaston archipelago). From there we could make out the albatross monument to the many sailors who had lost their lives battling ferocious storms while attempting to round the horn during the days of sail. Once our ship made its turn to the east, any motion we might have experienced during the previous thirty-six hours was completely gone. We were once again able to return to the foredeck to look for marine life and view the verdant lands ahead, stark contrast to the whiteness of the continent we had left in our wake.
At 9:30 Naturalist Peter Wilson gave an illustrated presentation about the life of Tom Crean, one of Shackleton’s men and a great Irish explorer in his own right. During lunch Doug and Ian collected the last of the images to be submitted for the evenings guest slide show. At 4:30 Sue Perin hosted a rousing game of Explorer Jeopardy in the lounge with questions pertaining to facts about Antarctica, hopefully learned during this voyage. At 5:00 our pilot came aboard to guide us the rest of the way down the Beagle Channel to Ushuaia, our point of departure so many days ago.
As we all made ready to say farewell to our newfound friends and comfortable little ship, we felt blessed to have had so much fine weather and incredible experiences with wildlife in this most beautiful, remote, and pristine part of the world.
