Last night, just before midnight, we passed due south of Cape Horn at long last. We are slightly embarrassed to admit that the weather was fine and the winds light by Cape Horn standards. The sky was clear enough to give us a good view of many shooting stars, satellites and heavenly constellations.

Now that we are closer to land we are beginning to see more wildlife: petrels, penguins, dolphins, even a school of whales have come to look at us.

This morning at smoko the winner of the sweepstake for guessing the correct time to pass Cape Horn was announced as Bob Arden – well done, Bob! And many thanks to J.R. for running the sweepstake and raising more funds for the JST.

Today we are heading East by North towards the Lamare Straits, after which we will turn north towards 50 degrees of south latitude again, to make us Cape Horners in every sense of the word. Low of the horizon to port we can see the cliffs and mountains of Tierra del Fuego, and this morning we sighted the first ship we have seen since leaving the Chatham Islands on 28th December last year! Some of us are even beginning to look forward to dis-assembling Ushuaia at some point in the not too distant future!

Yesterday, to celebrate the exceptionally good weather, the view of Cape Horn and our survival of the southern ocean, cooks assistant Tracey and Medical Purser Liz decided to climbed the main mast in their bikini’s and took in the fabulous view, as did we all on the deck.

Earlier today, Nursie found bunk wars came a little too close to home, when her beloved lamb, Myfawny, was kidnaaaaapped, with location clues and raaaammmmson notes being received by Nursie all through the morning. We are pleased to report that PC A.P. Hairy Monkey solved the case and returned the pet, albeit a little sheepishly.

Fwd starboard Paul, Alan, Andrew, Liz, Wendy, Mike, Emma and Steph