Cape Horn, feared and revered

Before the Panama Canal opened in 1914, Cape Horn was the only possible route between the Atlantic and Pacific. It was back then that the legendary character of this geographical accident, marking the border between two oceans was forged. A landmark for the most treacherous routes, and the most prolific point of departure for ocean legends, Cape Horn is considered the Everest of the sailing world. It is any sailor's greatest challenge.

The violent storms which form in the Pacific generate Northeasterly winds of up to 50 knots which, when they channel through the Andes mountain range and the Antarctic peninsular can easily reach speeds of over 70 or 80 knots. This creates huge waves to which icebergs and floating ice can be added during the Southern spring and summer seasons. To the end of summer and start of winter, the time when the Barcelona World Race yachts are passing through, there is also the added problem of persistent fog, which along with the dwindling hours of daylight creates a dramatic grey atmosphere with visibility that often makes a view of the yacht's bow impossible.

For the boats, the most significant danger is not posed by the winds, but by the enormous swell generated around Cape Horn. Boosted by the Roaring Forties and the Furious Fifties, there are storms which run without any obstacle for over 4,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean. The waves generated channel through Drake's Passage, some 500 miles long, enter a bottle neck formed by Cape Horn and the Antarctic, where very often they reach speeds of above 12 metres. The enormous swell is also due to counter currents and dangerous rocks as it goes from a depth of 6,000 metre in the Pacific to just 400 metres at Drake's Passage.

Francis Chichester, the pioneer of round the world racing and the second person to ever round the Horn solo, following Vito Dumas in 1943, thinks that it was the most dangerous feat of his 1967 circumnavigation of the globe. Referring to his passage through the zone he wrote: “They couldn't drag me back there In a small boat however hard they tried, back to Cape Horn and the sinister Antarctic Ocean. Those howling winds and that deep swell are the stuff of nightmares. I had a total sense of impotence faced with the power of the waves roaring above me”.

These great risks are what drove those who rounded the famous Cape to pierce their left earlobe with a gold ring. However, this wasn't the symbol of a successful rounding of the Horn, but it guaranteed a decent burial should the bodies be recovered from the sea. In some ways, today's sailors have it a lot easier than those old clippers passing Cape Horn. The IMOCA Open 60s in the Barcelona World Race glide across the waves with ease and have the speed and agility to anticipate the worst formations. That doesn't mean however, that the challenge lacks an air of the heroic for those who successfully round the Horn. There is the fact, of course, that the gold hoop has been replaced with the cracking open of a bottle of the best champagne.