Our second day of crossing the infamous (or famous, depending on your perspective or experience there) Drake Passage was relatively smooth, with seas generally less than 10’. Since we had no landings today, the day was filled with multiple presentations, most of which took place in the Ice Lounge. The exception to that was our first gathering of the day. We met on the bridge at 0900 to witness our arrival back to the continent of South America at Cape Horn. While there, a famous poem by Chilean Sara Vial was read, first in Spanish by Expedition Leader Stefano Pozzi and then in English by National Geographic photographer Macduff Everton. This poem is etched in an albatross-shaped monument that was erected at the cape in December of 1992, and it is titled, “I am the albatross.”
I am the albatross that awaits you
At the end of the world.
I am the forgotten souls of dead mariners
Who passed Cape Horn
From all the oceans of the world.
But they did not die
In the furious waves.
Today they sail on my wings
Toward eternity,
In the last crack
Of the Antarctic winds.
