Cape Horn
Now there’s a sight! The better part of two days steaming northward and there it is, right ahead of us, the tip of the Americas, Cape Horn. There are not many people who first sight Cape Horn from the south! It’s the end of the world, so where are we coming from? Well, that’s obvious, somewhere beyond the end of the world! Hey! It’s a bit strange, but I think I see plants up there and while I know that in a few hours I’ll also see trees… it has been awhile. For days it has been icebergs, snow, glaciers, penguins, whales, seals, black, white and gray, magnificent! Even the dolphins playing about the ship now seem out of place, more tropical, like the water, like the air, but this isn’t the tropics, the mountains ahead are rugged, ice shattered and snowcapped, but somehow it all seems more home-like, more comfortable. Where were we? The answer is there, “Somewhere beyond the edge of the world” – and most important, no longer beyond the imagination. It’s there in my head and in my soul. Some people will see it in my eyes, a sparkle like sun on virgin ice, those who have been there, beyond the edge of the world.
Now there’s a sight! The better part of two days steaming northward and there it is, right ahead of us, the tip of the Americas, Cape Horn. There are not many people who first sight Cape Horn from the south! It’s the end of the world, so where are we coming from? Well, that’s obvious, somewhere beyond the end of the world! Hey! It’s a bit strange, but I think I see plants up there and while I know that in a few hours I’ll also see trees… it has been awhile. For days it has been icebergs, snow, glaciers, penguins, whales, seals, black, white and gray, magnificent! Even the dolphins playing about the ship now seem out of place, more tropical, like the water, like the air, but this isn’t the tropics, the mountains ahead are rugged, ice shattered and snowcapped, but somehow it all seems more home-like, more comfortable. Where were we? The answer is there, “Somewhere beyond the edge of the world” – and most important, no longer beyond the imagination. It’s there in my head and in my soul. Some people will see it in my eyes, a sparkle like sun on virgin ice, those who have been there, beyond the edge of the world.
