Renowned for its fierce storm winds and rough seas, Cape Horn occupies a mythical place in the mind of most sailors.
Located on Isla de Hornos in an archipelago known as the Wollaston Group, the cape itself was named by the Dutch captain Willem Schouten during a search for a new trade route to Asia in 1616. Schouten named it after his home town (and the name of one of his ships) of Hoorn.
Cape Horn’s reputation was largely earned in the days of long, uninterrupted passages between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. For the sailing ships attempting the rounding, it was very difficult to avoid the powerful Southern Ocean storms that strike Cape Horn, the only significant landmass on the globe at this high southern latitude. Many ships spent weeks or more trying to make westward progress against the strong winds, huge waves, and eastward flowing current.
These days, the situation is different. Most cruising boats that visit Cape Horn do it as a roughly 200 nautical mile round trip from Puerto Williams. With good attention to the weather forecast and some patience, it’s possible to sail around Cape Horn in reasonable conditions in a two to three day gap between the strong low pressure systems.
Madrone did exactly that spending a week sailing around the east side of Isla Navarino, down to Puerto Maxwell in the Wollaston Group, around the Cape, and then to Caleta Martial before taking a couple of days to sail back to town. We had good sailing weather the entire trip, likely because we spent two of the days sitting at anchor waiting for stronger winds to blow through.
Sailing around Cape Horn wasn’t the reason we decided to sail to southern Chile in the first place, but we’re happy (and even a bit proud) that we’ve done it.
