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DESTINATION

To the Endsof the Earth

Around the Horn

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DESTINATION

Frances and Michael Howorth sailed around Cape Horn in the 223’ (68m) Via Australis. Here they share

with Captains and Owners alike their first hand experiences of a voyage to the very ends of the earth…

Words and Images: Michael & Frances Howorth

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For many owners of superyachts, passingthrough the North West Passage or sailingup the Amazon River are nautical adventuresjust waiting to happen. It is simply a ques-tion of getting the free time to make the tripand planning the voyage correctly. Sailingaround Cape Horn, at the very junction of theSouth Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is right upthere with those other adventures but thepassage by superyacht is a great deal easierand gentler on the sea legs than you mightfirst think. Having just disembarked the 223’Via Australis we are able to share first handwith captains and owners alike the way to goabout planning such a voyage.Located at the meeting point of two greatoceans, Cape Horn latitude 55°56’ South andlongitude 67°19’ West, is surrounded by an al-most mystic aura of lost sailors’ souls. Thereare very few places in the world in which manfeels quite as vulnerable and exposed to theelements. Bookshelves around the world arelittered with volumes detailing the difficul-ties that sailing ships of yesteryear encoun-tered rounding this point of land. It is

It is estimated 800 shipswere lost off Cape Hornover the centuries. It'sconsiderably safer cruisinggrounds today, but still anexhilarating andenchanting area forintrepid sailors.F

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estimated that between the 16th and the 20thcenturies more than 800 ships were lost inthe stormy waters off Cape Horn, burying nofewer than 10,000 men of all walks of life andnationalities at sea.Rounding the Horn is traditionally acknowl-edged as sailing from 50º south on one coastto 50º south on the other, a distance ofaround 900-miles. The fastest, and thereforeperhaps the smoothest, of logged passagesaround Cape Horn was recorded by Priwall,which completed the transit over a five dayperiod in 1938. The ill-fated sailing ship, Su-sana, however took a staggering 94-daysachieve the same in 1905, and as a resultholds the inverse record! While many fineships were lost others enjoyed great tradingsuccess using the route. The clipper FlyingCloud for example voyaged around it safelymany times, typically averaging 89-days be-tween New York and San Francisco. Many assume that it was the Portuguese Cap-tain Ferdinand Magellan who, in the serviceof the King of Spain, first discovered CapeHorn. He was, in 1521, looking for a westward

route to the Spice Islands when he found theway past the foot of South America. But he didso by sailing through what he called the Vic-toria Strait–now know as the Straights ofMagellan–a body of water that passes well tothe north of Cape Horn. It was not until 1616,some 95-years later, that European eyes firstset sight on Cape Horn. Departing from theport of Texel, Netherlands on 14th June 1615the French merchant, Isaac Le Maire, andsailors, Guillermo Cornelio and JuanSchouten, set sail in two ships: the 360-tonEndracht and the 110-ton Höorn. Having lostHöorn to a fire earlier in the voyage they con-tinued, rounded the Cape in Endracht andnamed the location after their lost ship.Our own voyage around the Horn began inPunta Arenas, Chile’s most southern city andone that claims to be the most southerly cityin the world. Named after the prominent(and only) sandy beach in the area, it is nowa city with a population of just 130,000. Sincethe opening of the Panama Canal a centuryago, the city has lost its importance as a coal-ing station for ships passing around the foot

of South America. In 1851, during a period of110-days, 130 ships are recorded havingcalled into the port. Currently about 50 cruiseships call in on the city of Punta Arenas eachsummer and close to 1,500 ships per yearpass through the Magellan Strait… at leastten times that number use the Panama Canal. The jetties of what was once Port Loretto werefinally abandoned in 1940 and now lay dis-used and rotting. The railway lines that servedit are rusting away and the pilings of the dockproving a popular roosting place for the whitebellied cormorant. Often confused with pen-guins by visitors, it only becomes clear whichis which when the cormorants take off and fly.We boarded Via Australis at 6pm and within2-hours had set sail heading south and easttowards Ainsworth Bay. As dawn breaks wefind ourselves navigating through Almiran-tazgo (Admiralty) Sound, at around 9-knotsand by breakfast time our Captain haddropped anchor at a spectacular spot withinthe Alberto De Agostini National Park.Walking ashore in the marvelous sub-polarMagellanic forest we are astonished to find a

The opportunities to observe wildlife up close and personal are numerous and educating. Take the love-hate relationship between skuabirds and penguins for example, the skua steal eggs and chicks... but also clean the penguin's habitat for them.

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King Cormorants. The birds seem totally un-perturbed by human intrusion and it is quiteeasy to approach the shoreline quietly in thetender to the point of placing the bow ontothe beach. Sit still and keep the cameraprimed and it will not be long before the cu-rious penguins approach the boat to checkout the interesting human visitors.At this time of year the penguin chicks arefleshing up, shedding the fluffy feathers andacquiring the smooth, sleek oiled–and there-fore waterproof–plumage that enables themto survive for long periods in the water. It isnot unheard of to find these birds as far northas the equator on either the Atlantic or Pa-cific side of the continent. Sit still in the ten-der and chances are a Cinclode, a small andsomewhat curious bird, will approach. Dis-tinctive markings around its eyes give the im-pression it might be wearing flying gogglesand that seems to be the derivation of itsmore common name of the Pilot bird As we circumnavigated the islets we wereable also to observe close up other species in-cluding Skua and Caracara Hawk, a sinisterlooking bird of prey. The ever present scav-enger Skua birds have a love hate relation-ship with the penguin, stealing the eggs andnewly hatched chicks for food yet at the sametime cleaning up the mess penguins leavebehind.During the night we briefly left the securityof inland passages and ventured out into thePacific. The force of the mighty ocean imme-diately demonstrated how important theStraits of Magellen were when small woodenbuilt barques were attempting to navigatefrom the Atlantic into the Pacific.By early morning everything was calm oncemore however as we entered the mournfullynamed Desolation Bay and on into the Bal-lenero (Whaler) Channel. Captain RobertFitzroy, Captain of HMS Beagle, named thisstretch of water in memory of his whalingboat that was stolen by the indigenous peo-ple and never recovered.Navigating along the main part of the BeagleChannel we headed for Pia Fjord where wedropped anchor, accompanied by dolphins

Prepare for and expect theperiods of inclement weather.

After all, one of the reasons werevere the Cape's imposing

presence is its position in theFurious Fifties and south of the

Roaring Forties!

The exterior of the Overhang House blends sympathetically with the headland it occupies. Inside hangs a world-class collection art.

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beaver dam. Its existence is evidence ofman’s menacing intervention with nature. Inthe 1940’s a local farmer had the idea ofbreeding the creatures in a terrain that, intheory at least, mimicked their natural habi-tat in Canada. He imported just 25 pairs inthe hope of breeding them and harvestingpelts to create a profitable fur trade. The qual-ity of fur however never matched the highstandards seen in their native environmentand the business failed to flourish. The ani-mals were set free and quickly adapted andtoday, without natural predators, the beaverpopulation is said by some to number in ex-cess of 100,000. They are also dramaticallyaltering the terrain by diverting rivers and lit-tle can easily be done to stop them.At this time of year the beach at AinsworthBay is one of the places elephant seals cometo breed. Being nomadic and unpredictablein their movements, it is impossible to knowin advance the precise location of the colonyand sadly we were not lucky enough to seeduring our visit. But the view of the MarinelliGlacier as it descends from the Darwin

Mountain Range is spectacular and a majorconsolation. Like almost all glaciers in thesesparts it is in a period of retreat and we weresurprised to learn quite how much it has re-treated over recent years.The power of the ice that has been the domi-nant factor in the sculpting of the Patagonianlandscape and glaciers can best be describedas massive masses of ice in motion. They arethe most erosive force yet discovered onearth and it is they alone that are responsiblefor the creation of the myriad of fjords andchannels that have created this most wonder-ful and isolated cruising ground. Chile is #3in a list of countries with the largest ice fieldcoverage and the southern most DarwinRange in which we cruised encompasses9,250 square miles.We sailed a short distance on to TuckersIslets, a grouping of small inlands that makesa wonderfully sheltered anchorage teamingwith birds. It is a perfect location to closelyobserve colonies of Magellanic Penguins(see sidebox) which only live in the SouthernHemisphere, as well as both the Rock and

"Glaciers havecarved fjords and channels,

creating the mostwonderfully

isolated cruisinggrounds..."

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that played around our bow and stayed whilethe tenders were launched. Carefully negoti-ating small icebergs carved from the glacierin the tender, we landed and hiked up to gaina spectacular view across the entire glaciertongue. At the point where it meets the waterthe glacier is three quarters of a mile wideand the cliff face towers over 820’ into thesky. Stretching dramatically from high in themountains all the way to the sea, the creakingand groaning of the ever-active glacier was afascinating addition to the majestic icesparkling in shades of blue and white.After this unforgettable experience, weweighed anchor and continued sailing alongthe northwest arm of the Beagle Channelthrough the majestic channel that has earnedthe nickname ‘Glacier Alley’. Cruise thisstretch of water and you pass glaciers thatbear the names Spain, Romanch, Germany,France, Italy and Netherlands.

ROUNDING THE HORNThe mere mention of the Horn as part of avoyage itinerary has in the past made many

sailors question their choice of profession. Toreach the Cape and its attendant NationalPark–declared a World Biosphere Reserve in2005–it is necessary to navigate through theMurray Channel and then Nassau Bay.Known to sailors of old as the very ‘End of theEarth’,  this impressively sheer 1,394’ highrocky promontory has become famous as theocean demarcation point since it was firstdiscovered and the south east extreme of IslaCabo Horno (Cape Horn Island) is the Amer-ica’s most southerly point of land. Weather permitting it is possible to landashore at the Cape at León Cove. Once therevisitors can visit the lighthouse, Stella MarisChapel, an impressive monument on top ofthe mountain where the current lighthousekeeper and his family surely have one of themost dramatic, wild and lonely homes in theworld. Landing is not always possible andwhen it is it can be quite hair raising. Thereis no beach, just a jetty and 162 steps lead upfrom the landing site.The jetty is very small and one good tip froma Captain, who has landed passengers ashore

"The currentlighthouse keeper

and his familysurely have one ofthe most dramatic,

wild and lonelyhomes in the

world..."

Trips ashore invariably lead to encounters with curious wildlife and sights few others can claim to have set eyes on.

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on several occasions, is to have twocrewmembers, each wearing wet suits travelin the after end of the tender, one on eachside. As the tender touches the beach, theyslip over the side into very cold water thatcomes to the shoulder and from there theyhold the tender while guests disembark. Healso added the wise words… “the thicker thewetsuit the happier the crew members are!”

ASHORE AT CAPE HORNIt is a steep and windblown climb to the siteof the monument erected in 1992 by theChilean Association of Cape Horners in mem-ory of the 10,000+ souls whose lives were lostin over 800 recorded shipwrecks. The work ofChilean sculptor José Balcells Eyquem themonument stands 20’ high and constructed towithstand winds of 175-knots (125mph) it tookmore than two months to erect. On the roadleading up to it there is two marble slabs. Oneis engraved with details of the monumentsdedication service, the other carries the wordsof the Chilean poet Sara Vial, a poet from Val-paraíso. Translated it reads:

The sight of the Marinelli Glacier as it descends from the Darwin Mountain Range is truly spectacular, it was distressing to hear how dramatically the glaciers have retreated in recent years however... so visit now!

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“I am the albatross that awaits youat the end of the earth.I am the forgotten soul

of the dead sailorswho sailed around Cape Hornfrom all the seas of the world.

But they did not diein the furious waves,

today they fly on my wings,towards eternity,in the last crevice

of the Antarctic winds”

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WRECKSThe Cape has claimed the souls of many afine ship and called more than 10,000 sailorsto meet their maker. Of these, O’Higgens aChilean frigate, recently sold to the govern-ment of Argentina, was on her way to her newhome port when she was wrecked roundingCape Horn in 1826. Hers was a particularlysad loss given that all 506 souls on board per-ished. Reporter, an American frigate, was lostsome 36-years later loosing 32 of her 36-mancrew while in 1890 the 1191 ton steamer Mal-borough foundered. She belonged to theBritish shipping company Shaw Saville andAlbion and was lost along with her cargo ofgold, meat and wool while on a voyage fromNew Zealand to the UK.Some ships were wrecked deliberately! Dur-ing the Great War the three-masted Britishship Drumuir, whose 3,000 ton cargo of coalwas coveted by the battle cruisers Scharn-horst and Gneisenau, was captured robbed ofher cargo and sunk by gunfire. The lastrecorded loss was in 1929 when the Germanvessel Pinass sank on passage, coming togrief at the very end of the world as she triedto make her way from one ocean to the next.

THE TIERRA DELFUEGO NATIONAL PARKThe island of Tierra del Fuego is shared byChile and Argentina. Created by the govern-ment of Argentina in 1960 the Tierra delFuego National Park covers some 69,000hectares from the southern tip of the Andesin the north to the waters of the Beagle Chan-nel in the south. First inhabited by the Ya-mana more than 10,000 years ago it is an areaof archaeological interest as well as provid-ing a haven for wildlife and fauna.The Yamana were nomad people whoroamed the area by canoes made from thewood and bark of the indigenous Lenga trees.They ate mostly sealions and mussels and itis the discarded shells of these molluscs thathave created the many middens that are dot-ted around the shorelines. 3,000 Yamanslived hereabouts before the arrival of the Eu-ropeans but by 1890 that number had fallento just 1,000. Just 20 years later records showthat in 1910 the number was down to 100. Asa race they have now ceased to exist.Administered now by the National Parks Au-thority under the jurisdiction of the Ministryof Tourism the park offers the opportunity of

Cape HornFact File

Cruising the area around Cape Horn,throughout the Beagle Channel and MagellanStraits calls for a well prepared yacht. Crewshould be fit and healthy and deck andengine room equipment checked to the pointof complete satisfaction. This is a hostile partof the world and is isolated in the extreme.Small cruise ships do operate in the area butthey do so on tight schedules and may beunwilling to assist a yacht with mundanerequirements Local cruising yachtsmen stayin touch with each other using thePatagonian Cruisers Net, which is run everymorning at 09:00 local time on 8164 kHz. It isa useful way of discovering the state of ananchorage and local weather conditions fromreliable sources. Night navigation is notadvised for yachts save those carrying a localpilot and those operating a yacht’s tendersare advised that high-speed operations atnight in ice can be fraught with danger.

The main route into Chile from the rest ofthe world by air is through Santiago. Thecountry’s carrier is LAN Chile, a member ofthe One World Alliance, and they have animpressive network of embarkation portsaround the world. From Santiago, localairlines and private charter planes can beorganised for onward transport to PuntaArenas. For yachts using Ushuaia inArgentina as the starting point for thevoyage, Buenos Aires, is the internationalgateway. Carriers like British Airways andIberia serve the capital from Europe, whileAerolineas Argentina the country’s flagcarrier serves a good network of North andSouth American airports.

Private helicopters and yachts with theirown helicopters offer the very best ofopportunities of getting around and accessingsome of the most beautiful of isolatedcountryside. Ships agents appear to have agood grasp on what can be achieved and howhelicopters can be chartered in to operate inconjunction with the cruising superyacht.Porto Williams has an airstrip and flights areoperated on a daily basis to larger cities thelikes of Punta Arenas. The ferry Yaghanoperates weekly service from Punta Arenas.Public transport is inexpensive if somewhatbasic. There are no trains and buses run totimetables known only to the driver.

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camping and fishing (with a permit) in thesouthernmost wilderness amid stunningscenery in a location that is unequalled any-where else. Red fox roam the area but seldombother the visitor. The number of otherspecies that are endemic this far south is verysmall but include the Guanaco, some smallrodents and birds. Introduced species suchas the rabbit, grey fox, muskrat and the ubiq-uitous beaver have all been less kind to theirsurroundings.Apart from the scenery tourists come to thepark to stand at the very start (or is it the fin-ish?) of the Pam American Highway that con-nects Alaska to Tierra del Fuego some 17,000miles away Visitors can play a round on theworld’s most southernmost golf course orride the steam engine trains plying the pic-

turesque narrow gauge railway that runsslowly for five miles through the countryside.

THE MAGELLANIC PENGUIN(SPHENISCUS MAGELLANICUS)The first mention of this cute animal datesback to 1520, when Antonio Pigafetta, theman who chronicled the voyages of Ferdi-nand Magellan, described it as a wild goose!There are 17 species of penguins in the world,all of which live in the southern hemisphere.The northernmost species is the Galapagospenguin and the southernmost one is theEmperor penguin, which lives in the Antarc-tic continent.The Magellanic penguin can be found fromTierra del Fuego up to Brazil (along the At-lantic Ocean) and Peru (in the Pacific). These

faraway destinations are reached after a mi-gration to warmer waters of over 3,700 miles.Our penguin measures between 20 to 28” tall;it weighs up to 11lbs and lives until the ageof twenty. The male penguin is slightly largerthan the female and its beak is also a littlelonger. They lead a pelagic life and spendmost of it in the water, even when they’resleeping.They are fantastic swimmers and can reachspeeds of up to 5mph underwater and dive toa depth of 260’. Their plumage is similar to aduvet; it is very dense and is coated with wa-terproofing oil secreted from the uropigialgland. A thick layer of fat that helps insulatetheir body from the cold.They have a peculiar call which sounds likea donkey’s bray and they sneeze out a salty

"Magellanic Penguins can weigh up to 11lbs, dive to 260' and sleep under water... they also have

a call like a donkey's bray and sneeze out a thick fluid viscous to purge excess salt!"

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The area covered in this report spans thejurisdictions of both Chile and Argentina andtherefore two currencies could be considered local.Both are referred to as Peso and neither isparticularly stable. Of the two the Chilean Peso ismore robust. Captains cruising locally advise thatwhile small amounts of local currency should becarried it is far better to carry Euros or US Dollarsand change them when required. Rates ofexchange change daily, hourly even in Argentina,and there are two markets on which money can beexchanged. The legal route is not quite asattractive as the more often used black marketrate whose existence is inevitable given the pooreconomy of the area.

Locally the language spoken is South AmericanSpanish and there are few places where English isordinarily spoken by locals

The area around Cape Horn is, let’s face it, one ofthe reasons why we hold it in such reverence. It isafter all inside the Furious Fifties and to the southof the aptly named Roaring Forties!The temperature drops quickly the further south ayacht sails and strong pressure systems seem topass consecutively. Relatively dry on the Atlanticcoast, there is a more heavy precipitation on thePacific Coast. On the Atlantic side of the continent the windvaries as the pressure system passes, but on thePacific side the prevailing wind direction in thesummer season is from NNW. Very seldom is thearea granted a Westerly or South Westerly airflow.There are two dominant seasons in the area,summer and winter. It is unlikely that superyachtswould seek to cruise in the area during the wintermonths of June until October. That said, there ismore wind and rain in the summer months and inwinter there are many periods when clear skies arepredominant. Winter is naturally colder, withshorter days and during that time precipitation ismore likely to fall as snow instead of rain.

Golf: We know of one superyacht that made thejourney to this part of the world so that her ownercould play golf at the world’s most southerly GolfCourse. Outside Ushuaia ‘The End of the WorldGolf Course’ is tucked away in a fertile valley,surrounded by the hills of the lower Andes. Theyacht owner said, “The greens are small and thePipo River makes it a demanding course. Shortgreens coupled with sometimes vicious local windmakes it difficult to make par, even for lowhandicappers.” That same superyacht ownerplayed the course at the Magallanes Country Clubin Punta Arenas. Port Williams Yacht Club:Located at Puerto Williams, Chile, The Micalvi

All 17 species of penguin live in the southern hemisphere, Magellan's travel comanion,Antonio Pigafetta described them as 'wild geese' in his written records of expeditions.

The Magellanic penguin can live up to the age of 20-years old.

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fluid produced by a gland that concentratesexcess salt in their body. Penguins shed theirfeathers every year. During this period (Jan-uary – February), they avoid going into thewater to eat. They attain their final colorsonly during their third year of life, which in-cludes eye-catching rings around their eyesand neck. Their diet consists of small fish,such as anchovies, sardines or sea silver-sides. The penguin’s main enemies are sealions, fishing nets and ocean pollution.

WULAIA BAYBack in protected waters is Wulaia Bay onIsla Naverino, some 78-miles to the north ofCape Horn, a site seeped in history. It washere that one of the region’s largest Yamanaaboriginal settlements was located, thoughlittle remains of their presence much hasbeen recorded of their life. HMS Beagle wasto visit the area twice. On his first visit duringhis four-year long voyage from England, Cap-tain Robert Fitzroy charted many of the chan-nels to make the straits of Magellan a safer

passage for ships avoiding rounding theHorn. He was responsible for the naming ofmany of the channels including the BeagleChannel and the infamous Whaler Channel.It was the loosing of his whaler that causedFitzroy to snatch four local children in re-venge and take them back with him to Eng-land in 1830. He named them Boat Memory,Fuegia Basket, York Minster and Jimmy But-ton. Fuegia Basket died of smallpox beforeshe reached England but the others survivedand Button, the youngest at just 14 whensnatched, went on to become famous in Lon-don’s society after having been presented toQueen Victoria. Charles Darwin landed inWulaia in 1833, during the second voyage tothe area by HMS Beagle. It is an area of mesmerizing beauty made themore so with its limited vegetation and gran-ite formed geography. Drawings made in the1830’s by Robert Fitzroy, an accomplishedartist, show that the terrain is little changedsince he visited. A century after he left theChilean Navy arrived to build and man a

Charles Darwin landed in Wulaia in 1833, during the second voyage to the area by HMS Beagle. It is an area of mesmerizing beauty made the more so with its limited vegetation and gran- ite formed geography.

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radio relay station that was active until the1950’s. They shared the land with a family ofCroatian settlers who farmed the area at thesame time.The settlers raised horses, sheep, cattle andpigs but when they decided to leave the areaat the same time as the Navy they left somepigs behind. This explains why today thearea is inhabited by a colony of wild boar thatis leaving their mark on the territory. Pigs arenot the only animals to be responsible for arapidly changing landscape, the beaver pop-ulation is totally uncontrolled and with theirpenchant for damming streams they arequickly killing off the Lenga, the only treespecies that has adapted to this high latitudepart of the world Walking through the Magellan forest with itsunderstandably limited varieties of vegeta-tion tamed naturally by the extreme weathermakes one realize how the remoteness of theland has created what we see. Lengas,Coigües, Canelos, ferns, and other endemicvegetation are all because of this, truly awe

inspiring. A panoramic viewing point and asmall improvised visitor center fashionedfrom the former radio station has become thefocal point for passengers visiting the areaon board ships of the Cruceros Australisfleet, where it invites visitors to meet and ex-plore the cultural and archaeological her-itage.

PORT WILLIAMSPuerto Williams is a small and quiet townalong the Beagle Channel and proudly, ifsomewhat quaintly, is described as being‘drugs and delinquent free’. It lies 96-milesnorth of Cape Horn and 26-miles east fromUshuaia. Like everything else around here ithas its own ‘world’s most southerly claim’, butin this case it might well be true! The MicalviYacht Club (see Fact Box) is the southern-most yacht club in the world and lies insideone of the most secure harbors of the area. Ithas found favor with captains who need aport in which to lay in wait for owners to flyinto or out of the area.

Yacht Club is said to be the world’s most southerlyyacht club. It has a reputation for makingsuperyachts welcome and can be a good source forlocal pilots and guides. The former Chilean Navyvessel Escampavia Micalvi acts as the clubhouse.Built in Germany during 1925 she was used as atransport along Rhine river before being acquiredby the Chileans in 1928 for use as a service andsupply ship in and around the Magellan Straits fornaval outposts, lighthouses keepers, Indianvillages and sheep ranches. There are local yachtclubs in both Punta Arenas and Ushuaia. Both arefriendly but have less experience with handling orassisting superyachts.

Perhaps the best contact for captains seeking toemploy local ships agents who know their stuff isAustralis. With offices in Punta Arenas, Santiagoand a branch in Ushuaia this is the company thatalready operates the two tiny superyacht likecruise liners Stella Australis and Via Australis.They have as a result gained an intimateknowledge of what can and cannot be done bysmall ships and superyachtsIn Ushuaia, SS Seaways, Sealand and UshuaiaShipping have experience handling cruise ships

In Argentina it is Immigration, Aduana and thePrefectura Naval who are the agencies that need tobe contacted by cruising captains. Through themit is possible to obtain 3-month visas for crew. InChile, the relevant authorities include:Immigration, Aduana, Armada de Chile and theAgricultural authorities. Crews working on boardsuperyachts can obtain 3-month visas. These canbe extended for an additional cost of around 100U.S. dollars or by taking a trip out of the country–to Ushuaia for example–and then returning. Inboth countries cruising superyachts must obtain asailing permit, called a Zarpe, detailing the area inwhich the plan to sail. In Chile the Zarpe needs todetail ETAs and itineraries for anchorages alongthe route.

• For port clearance upon arrival• Certificate of registry• Crew list• List of weapons and ammunition (Make, Model,

Serial No., Quantity)• Vessel particulars• Insurance papers, valid for the duration of the

vessel’s stay• Passenger lists (if applicable)• Crew effects declaration• Ship stores list (Bonded)• IMO Maritime declaration of health• Vaccination list• Copies of De-ratting Certificate• List of last five ports of call lists• Last port Clearance

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The yacht club offers visiting crews tempo-rary membership and use of facilities, suchas internet, showers, bathroom, electricityand its club house bar, which are all to befound on board a former Chilean Navy sup-ply ship now owned by the club.

USHUAIAUshuaia, with a population 80,000, is Ar-gentina’s most important city in Tierra delFuego and is another claimant to the south-ernmost city in the world title! The city wasfounded in 1871 by the Anglican missionaryThomas Bridge from England, whose directancestors still live in the area on an Estancianamed Harbourton, after the Sussex townthat was the family home of Bridge’s wife.With Argentina seeking to set up a provinceand so establish sovereignty of the area–toensure Chile could not dominate the impor-tant shipping route–the town was expandedin 1884. It became a penal colony and theprisoners were used to develop the town inmuch the same way as the British developedAustralia. The then president Juan Peronclosed down the colony in 1947.The settlement slumped into almost total ob-scurity until the government, again worriedabout its geographical claims, bestowedupon it very favorable tax incentives which,with the cheap and willing work force, turnedit almost over night into a thriving light in-dustrial zone. While Ushuaia has little to merit as a touristattraction the nearby National Park is defi-nitely worth a visit. During the short Antarc-tic season the port bustles with cruise shipsand yachts leaving and returning from thesouth, as well as visitor like us having com-pleted the age old ambition of ‘going aroundthe Horn’. I

Everywhere you visit in theregion has some amusing

claim to being 'thesouthernmost something or

other' but this only adds tothe memorable experience.

We thank the crew of ViaAustralis for helping fulfill

that age-old ambition of‘Rounding the Horn’.

Masters are required to give notice of ETA24hrs, and 12hrs prior to arrival in any portand will be expected to report theirpositions to the authorities while cruising.Clearance formalities take place beforecrew and passengers land ashore or yachtsenter docks and marinas.Pilots are required inside some harborlimits and are advisable when cruisingHarbor Control stations can be contactedon Channel 12 or 16

Day 1 Punta Arenas to Ainsworth BayDay 2 Ainsworth Bay to Tuckers IsletsDay 3 Tuckers Islets to Pia Glacier Day 4 Pia Glacier to Porto Williamsthrough Glacier AlleyDay 5 Porto Williams to Wulaia BayDay 6 Wulaia Bay to Cape Horn and ifnecessary back to Wulaia BayDay 7 Wulaia Bay to Ushuaia

Finding a yacht to charter in the area isnot an easy task, but some yachts doundertake charters in the area onoccasions. One such is Sherekahan that isavailable through Y.CO. Both vessels in theAustralis Fleet can be chartered on a wholeship basis, so those without their own yachtin the area or are unprepared wait thearrival of one to charter, they would do wellto consider a voyage in Via Australis. Werecommend it.

Frances and Michael Howorth the writers,are grateful to Cruceros Australis whofacilitated their voyage on board ViaAustralis

Micalvi Yacht Club:http://micalvi.netUshuaia Shipping:www.ushuaiashipping.comSS Seaways:http://www.ssa-shipping.comAustralis:www.australis.com