![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/iu.jpg\")
I awoke this morning to creaking metal and vibrating thrusters, as the ship swayed heavily from side to side. Mentally, I checked our location, but it wasn\u2019t my mental itinerary that reminded us where we were \u2013 it was something else. Woven in and underneath the modern sound of protesting metal was something much older: the shrieking sound of resisting wood, of tearing sails and splintering masts, of heaving waves and snapping lines.<\/p>\n
Ladies and Gentlemen \u2013 this is Cape Horn.<\/p>\n
I have rounded the cape several times in my career, and you never know what it\u2019s going to bring you. Sometimes it\u2019s like glass, and you wonder if this fearsome turn of land at the bottom of the world has lost its bite; and sometimes it\u2019s like this morning, when you know that it hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Even after we left the Cape, the seas are extremely swell-ridden. A long slow swell that almost lulls you into a false sense of security, you don\u2019t realize you\u2019re tilting until you suddenly find yourself having to shift your balance. Not exactly rough per say, but not exactly glassy either. Somewhere in the middle.<\/p>\n
I can only imagine what these waters must have been like when it was wood, sails and rope instead of metal and propulsion. It\u2019s no wonder that rounding the horn under sail is still considered a major accomplishment (I haven\u2019t \u201cearned\u2019 my earring, and I probably never will \u2013 even if I do one day crew a tall ship).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I awoke this morning to creaking metal and vibrating thrusters, as the ship swayed heavily from side to side. Mentally, I checked our location, but it wasn\u2019t my mental itinerary that reminded us where we were \u2013 it was something … Continue reading