Sailing the Fierce 50's

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Well, sure.

But "just in order to say you did" includes saying it to yourself. To have been in that very place, which is NOT indeed just another rocky Scandinavian headland, but The Horn.

I have a journal which I inherited from an ancestor, my third great grandfather, who writes about going around the Horn in the 1830's on his way back to London from Java. I read it in my childhood, as my father did, and his father did, and so forth. I would give an eye tooth to pass that place, and not indeed for looking at the rocks.

To say you have been 'around the Horn' and be entitled to have an elbow on the table ( two in the case of my Uncle Len who had gone to sea with Devitt and Moore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medway_(1902) and then found himself in the RN towards the end of WW1) involves a bit more than a daysail around the Horn.

South Australia or Iquique bound LEFO is what is required... not just a cupla days out of Williams.. first time I went past the Horn the area around the lighthouse ( which isn't at the Horn proper btw ) was like an anthill as a cruise liner - Hanseatic - had just disgorged all her passengers....

And its not that simple to take the soft option since the Armada shut down the illegal charter trade last year... sorry... but you will have to do it the hard way

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

To say you have been 'around the Horn' and be entitled to have an elbow on the table ( two in the case of my Uncle Len who had gone to sea with Devitt and Moore https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medway_(1902) and then found himself in the RN towards the end of WW1) involves a bit more than a daysail around the Horn.

South Australia or Iquique bound LEFO is what is required... not just a cupla days out of Williams.. first time I went past the Horn the area around the lighthouse ( which isn't at the Horn proper btw ) was like an anthill as a cruise liner - Hanseatic - had just disgorged all her passengers....

And its not that simple to take the soft option since the Armada shut down the illegal charter trade last year... sorry... but you will have to do it the hard way

The "hard way"? I would say the "good way", or the "only way" -- in my own boat. Certainly I would never do it with some daysailing charter -- ick.

I haven't done any planning of this, because it's not realistic these days, when I am still working for a living.

But when I have the time -- maybe I'll do a clipper route circumnavigation passing the five capes, starting in Cowes. I am not interested in the tropics or trade winds -- I love higher latitudes. Before doing something like that, if I have time, I just want to get up to Iceland and maybe Greenland -- something I could manage maybe within my annual four month summer cruise. Maybe next year. I have long time crew who are eager to this, too.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

The "hard way"? I would say the "good way", or the "only way" -- in my own boat. Certainly I would never do it with some daysailing charter -- ick.

I haven't done any planning of this, because it's not realistic these days, when I am still working for a living.

But when I have the time -- maybe I'll do a clipper route circumnavigation passing the five capes, starting in Cowes. I am not interested in the tropics or trade winds -- I love higher latitudes. Before doing something like that, if I have time, I just want to get up to Iceland and maybe Greenland -- something I could manage maybe within my annual four month summer cruise. Maybe next year. I have long time crew who are eager to this, too.

Good for you... Go for it

Easy peasy from Greenland... last month in Valdivia when land cruising I caught up with a Canadian couple I had met in Williams in 2008 ( boat in the low 40 foot range ). Since last seeing them they had been from Chile to NZ... then - by what route I know not- to Greenland, through the NW Passage, non stop Vancouver to Townsville (55 days) , NZ, and then back to Chile early this year ...

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

. . .
Easy peasy from Greenland... last month in Valdivia when land cruising I caught up with a Canadian couple I had met in Williams in 2008 ( boat in the low 40 foot range ). Since last seeing them they had been from Chile to NZ... then - by what route I know not- to Greenland, through the NW Passage, non stop Vancouver to Townsville (55 days) , NZ, and then back to Chile early this year ...

Wow . . . .

[CaptJamesCook]

El Pinguino when were the pictures taken?

[barnakiel]

Goretex. Plenty of light lose mid-layer. A drier and a heater inside.

I have not. My friends sailed all the way to the Antarctic peninsula though.

Cheers,
b.

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Well, sure.

But "just in order to say you did" includes saying it to yourself. To have been in that very place, which is NOT indeed just another rocky Scandinavian headland, but The Horn.

I have a journal which I inherited from an ancestor, my third great grandfather, who writes about going around the Horn in the 1830's on his way back to London from Java. I read it in my childhood, as my father did, and his father did, and so forth. I would give an eye tooth to pass that place, and not indeed for looking at the rocks.

As usual, Different sailors, different perspectives . . . . I took at least as much joy from rounding Ardnamurchan Point (in Scotland), not difficult just for personal reasons - there was an important personal lesson I learned from Ardnamurchan which has been very valuable in every day life for me.

I quite honestly did not get much of a lasting kick from any of the "great" capes - we had a memorable rounding of Hope with a beautiful setting sun and dolphins in the bow but it could have been anywhere.

I'm curious, the "clipper route" did they go under or over tasi and Stewart (I'm guessing north/over?)?

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by CaptJamesCook

El Pinguino when were the pictures taken?

January 2006.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by estarzinger

....

I'm curious, the "clipper route" did they go under or over tasi and Stewart (I'm guessing north/over?)?

As the clippers typically departed from Melbourne or Sydney it was 'over' Tasmania and under NZ. Inbound from Europe to Sydney or outbound from WA/SA it was under Tasmania. Of course there would be exceptions and the lighthouses on King Island, Otway and Deal were some of the earliest to be built in Australia. Plenty of wrecks on the west coast of King Island..... and enough to be going on with on the Auckland Islands

[barnakiel]

The Horn does not seem very difficult. Till last year there were charter boats there doing just that. You just paid the ride and you became a capehorner.

Somehow, I have always encountered stories of more extreme difficulty, e.g. round the Tasmania or on the long passages of the Southern Ocean.

b.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

The Horn does not seem very difficult. Till last year there were charter boats there doing just that. You just paid the ride and you became a capehorner.

Somehow, I have always encountered stories of more extreme difficulty, e.g. round the Tasmania or on the long passages of the Southern Ocean.

b.

'Daysailing' ** the Horn out of Williams can be difficult enough... yachts have been either lost doing it or have got into serious difficulties.... but doing it that way does not make you a 'Cape Horner'.

This is interesting re the track taken by the clippers ... known shipwrecks on the Auckland Islands.. https://teara.govt.nz/en/interactive...ckland-islands

Edit ** a good run would mean two nights out of Williams with nights spent in Martial, Maxwell or Toro.... a bad run would see some people taking 3 weeks with most of it spent waiting for wx windows.

[StuM]

I've sailed 50°N (Solent) and 43°S (Christchurch). Nowadays, I'm quite happy to never sail more that 23.5° either side of the equator again.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

'Daysailing' ** the Horn out of Williams can be difficult enough... yachts have been either lost doing it or have got into serious difficulties.... but doing it that way does not make you a 'Cape Horner'..

If being accepted by the International Association of Cape Horners is what makes you a "Cape Horner", then this is what you have to do:

"Qualifying Rounding

"Membership is open to individuals of all nationalities who have rounded Cape Horn under sail as part of a non-stop passage of at least 3,000 nautical miles which passes above the latitude of 50° South in both the Pacific (or Indian) and Atlantic Oceans and is completed without the use of engines for propulsion.

"Crews of other sailing vessels rounding Cape Horn, where the voyage does not conform exactly to the requirements above, may apply for their voyage to be approved. Each application shall be vetted by the Committee and approved only by unanimous agreement that the voyage complies wholly with the spirit, if not the precise detail, of the requirements for a Qualifying Rounding."

Introduction to membership

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by StuM

I've sailed 50°N (Solent) and 43°S (Christchurch). Nowadays, I'm quite happy to never sail more that 23.5° either side of the equator again.

Ah, come on

The Solent is a pussycat. Lots of wind but never even a challenging, not to speak of dangerous sea state. We call it "Lake Solent", in fact

One of the loveliest places on earth. Come up in the winter some time and I'll take you on a nice tour of the place.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

(...)

... but doing it that way does not make you a 'Cape Horner'.

(...)

Imho, it does.

Or else we have to say that the hundreds of people who climb Mount Everest every year have no right to say they did. For they all use guides, ropes and sherpas.

One rounds the Cape, one is a capehorner. Let's not get entangled in old bearded men telling the charter guests what to think.

It is just that the world is changing: we have new skills, new tools, new information. What was very difficult yesterday does not have to be difficult today.

Big hug,
b.