11.12.2015: Ushuaia

Ushuaia

Finally on board again! It is a great feeling to see the “Dagmar Aaen” in the marina of Ushuaia. As if it could be completely taken for granted, the ship has travelled 9.000 sea miles since she left Hamburg on the 5th of August. Volker, who was responsible on board during the whole journey – most of the time as captain – is leaving for a well-deserved holiday. He will be returning on board at the beginning of January for the journey to the Antarctic.

My thanks go not only to Volker at this point, but to the whole crew who brought the ship here safe and sound. The ship is in good condition. By looking at the “Dagmar Aaen” one doesn’t notice what she has accomplished. Unfortunately  we must go through a lot of paper work for border crossings and outbound clearances, but that’s the way things are. We are now in Puerto Williams in Chile.

We are heading for Cape Horn tomorrow. The weather has been bad till now: stormy and cold. And it is summer here. We have had night frost and it has snowed. Even the locals find this very strange. The weather is supposed to improve as of Sunday. The Chilean Navy has been very helpful and supportive of our film project about Cape Horn. In January, it will be 400 years since Cape Horn was sailed around for the first time. The film production company Topas is making a film documentation on this for ZDF. This is really quite a wild region.

The small yacht club in Puerto Williams consists of an original German Rhine steamship which sunk many years ago. It is now used as a yacht club and yachts from all over the world moor here. It is really comfortable in the Micalvi; there are showers, a bar and common rooms. The walls are covered with flags and souvenirs from widely travelled yachts. But now we are heading for the “Mother of all Capes” – Cape Horn. I will report…

Arved Fuchs