I'd be a terrible sailor...
Message:When Laura, Dad and I did our Antarctica trip in 2017 we passed through Cape Horn twice.
National Geographic Explorer isn't a huge floating city of a cruise ship - she carries roughly 150 passengers and another 150 crew (half of the crew deal with we guests, the rest run the ship), but she's the length of a football field.
We passed through the Cape both times during favorable weather, yet still dealt with 30-foot waves. The cabin Laura and I had was about as near to the ship's center of gravity as we could get... Right by this amazing spring rig that let the entire hull flex.
Ah, the Cape... I took the seasick med that once literally led to my passing out and faceplanting on a table - seriously harsh meds that, after the faceplanting incident we saved for the Cape and/or storms.
My memories are drug-hazy, but that spring creaked like Satan's own claws dragging across a chalkboard. Laura, Dad and I would find ourselves awakened, in midair, falling towards the beds that had dropped more than our body length below as Explorer rode over the crests and dropped into the troughs. For obvious safety reasons, outer decks were closed and barred when traversing the Cape.
My associate, Kirstie Tostovien at FXHOME did an Antarctic trip in winter 2018 - possibly aboard the very ship in Red's video? Kirstie's voyage was aboard the barque Europa. Europa is a three-mast tallship, about 130 feet long. Her hull is reinforced with steel, and she does carry diesel engines for emergency use. On a Europa voyage the passengers ARE the crew... Unless serious issues occur the passengers are sailing that sucker. I had given Kirstie stories and photos of our trip to whet her appetite for the wonders she would see (Antarctica and environs are starkly beautiful - my running joke was, "Another day, another goddamned glorious vista!"), but, of the Cape, after describing our experience, I could only say, "good luck."
Kirstie loved her trip - how could she not? Working as crew on a tall-mast, sailing those clear oceans and going ashore in some insanely beautiful locations? Great trip... But, of the Cape, she only said...
"...Cape Horn was not fun."
To the men of the Age of Exploration and the men and women of seafaring cultures I can only appreciate their bravery. Setting off into the unknown with only a few planks between you and a watery death is no joke! Even in our safe, modern, reinforced, be-springed, steel icebreaker in good weather Cape Horn was intimidating. To those who crossed her in smaller wooden crates I can merely offer salute.
Side note - crossing back last January from England to Ft. Lauderdale on "Queen Victoria..." Before Cunard bought her, she was a Mediterranean Ocean cruiser, flat bottomed, built for a different type of sea than the Atlantic. We spent a couple of days with a hurricane at our backs. Our cabin was the top passenger level nearer the bow... Sleeping was like riding Godzilla's foot (should I say "Dragon" for this audience?). A slow rise, the bed pressing up into you, then the bed would drop out from under you, and you'd hear the near subsonic thud as the prow smashed down. Then the entire 960ft long hull would shudder. Rinse, repeat, "Holy hell, people used to do this in crates! Crates, I say!"
I enjoy my Cutlass, but the sailor's life isn't for me. Tony knows I can get seasick a mere 20 minutes off Newport Harbor!
Yours,
IronMike
15-Jan-2021