Day 11. This is the day we round Cape Horn. We have been warned since even before departing Valparaiso that this day we would qualify as true sailors. In days past, after a sailor rounded Cape Horn he got a tattoo signifying this feat and was awarded the privilege of wearing a hoop earring in his left ear. Under the waters of the cape is a virtual clipper ship graveyard. Our captain has warned us repeatedly that we should expect very nasty waters this day and to prepare ourselves for seasickness. In actuality, the waters are not that bad at all. Night 1 was worse than this. When we get up we notice that those rat bastards on the Norwegian Sun are, once again, going to hamper our sights.
As we come to the backside of the Island Hornos the Sun is between us and the island. 
We are circling the backside of the island and then going to round it to make passage around Cape Horn. Our wonderful captain put his 
thrusters to warp 5 and we left those foofy nut-lovers in our wake. The backside of the islands is full of horny spires. This is where the Andes mountain range submerges into the ocean. We see one configuration that reminds us of Homer Simpson’s father sleeping soundly. 
Then we make it to Cape Horn. In this video I am listening to our captain through a little crack in the opening of our sliding glass door so that I am certain when we are crossing from Pacific to Atlantic.
According to our waiter, the reason the waters are so turbulent here is because the water level of the Pacific Ocean is much higher than that of the Atlantic. When the two meet the water just falls and flies everywhere. As we finish our crossing our captain informs us that we are now true sailors. He also makes fun of the Norwegian ship because they turned around instead of following us around the cape. We will not have to deal with that ship again until our last day, in Montivideo, Uruguay. Later we go to the pool to look at the Penguin Club fools swim in the freezing waters from Cape Horn. While we were at the cape they refilled the pool with those waters and anyone who wishes to swim in the freezing pool will get a Cape Horn Penguin Club certificate. We get there and there is steam coming off the water. They filled the water at the cape but then heated it as well. If we had known this ahead of time we would have brought home extra certificates. We did get ones for actually making the crossing of Cape Horn though. As we get further into the day heading north now, we clear the cloudy weather and it starts really heating up from here on. The water is still pretty wicked compared to the Pacific.
During lunchtime we find that we are not very hungry. We go to the Colony Club and play quite a few games of chess. It’s a nice afternoon, and we are very well matched against each other. Denise lets Todd win one after every two wins she racks up. After a while we decide it’s time to go find lunch. We agree to go check out the snacks at the Oceanview Café instead of a full blown lunch. We should have tried this place earlier!! The “snacks” here are great! Denise had a grilled tuna sandwich and a bowl of clam chowder. Todd had the rueben sandwich plate. This food is great!! These are not just snacks. We are going to be coming here more. Later that evening we enjoy a nice dinner with Carlos and Aura. Our plans for later this evening are to go back to the Colony Club for the second round of the “Karaoke Superstar” tournament. Those of you who know us well know that Denise is the singer in the tribe. Todd will sing if he gets drunk enough or feels comfortable with the crowd, but does not consider himself a palatable singer. But Denise wants to go compete so Todd is going too. Carlos and Aura are excited about seeing Denise sing so they meet us up there. 
We get our drink going on and pretty soon Todd has signed up to sing too. The song selection is very light. Not only light, but half of them are Spanish songs. So Denise can’t sing “Black Velvet” and Todd’s out of luck because there’s no “Smooth”. 
Denise goes with her backup song, “Crazy for You” and does a wonderful job (of course). Todd had to try something entirely new, “Crocodile Rock”. During his performance, as 
Elton John’s song goes into high falsetto range, it pops into Todd’s mind to grab his pants and yank them high while singing this part. This brought the crowd to uproarious laughter and led Todd into the Karaoke Superstar finals. We went for Denise, but things turned somehow. Carlos and Aura retired to their cabin and we went upstairs to the 
Hollywood Odyssey for smokes and jazz until the music was done. If only this were everyday life. This evening, Zen Bunny makes an encore appearance.
Day 12. We spend the day at sea today. No scenery whatsoever except the occasional bird hovering around. The day consists of sleeping in, chess, pisco sours and naps. This evening at dinner was the only thing out of the ordinary. We went to the Portofino Italian restaurant for the murder mystery dinner theater.
The evening starts in the Colony Club where we are served champagne. The couple whose heads we look at the backs of every evening sit next to us. We introduce ourselves and then the wife introduces herself as Marilyn. The husband extends his hand and says, “And I’m Vern…know what I mean?” We like them immediately. Todd starts talking with him about their personal bartender and he tells us that she’s his new best friend. Well, the champagne keeps coming and the show starts. These actors are TERRIBLE. The worst of them is an early 20s male playing a female fortune teller. When she makes a comment about “terrible odor” emanating from Todd and telling him to “take a shower” he speaks back to her/him and, sometime after the phrase “matchbook acting school”, the fortune teller turns and tells him to hush up because it’s her show and not his. He laughs and obeys. After the introduction of characters the action adjourns to the Portofino Restaurant. The wine is bottomless and so we indulge ourselves with quite a few glasses. When the characters take turns coming to our table for any questions we may have, everyone has something smart to say. Todd, well you know Todd, he also has some witty things to say about character relationships. They don’t seem to respond well to him. Neither of us cares much. We are having a ball with Vern and Marilyn, a German couple and a Mexican couple. Our table is a laugh factory, and our companions are very fun. We have no idea how many glasses of wine we consumed because as soon as our glasses got half empty they were immediately refilled. We only know that we had tons of fun. After the “performance”, we find Zen bunny being hung on the rack until he tells what he knows.
As we come to the backside of the Island Hornos the Sun is between us and the island. 
We are circling the backside of the island and then going to round it to make passage around Cape Horn. Our wonderful captain put his 
thrusters to warp 5 and we left those foofy nut-lovers in our wake. The backside of the islands is full of horny spires. This is where the Andes mountain range submerges into the ocean. We see one configuration that reminds us of Homer Simpson’s father sleeping soundly. Then we make it to Cape Horn. In this video I am listening to our captain through a little crack in the opening of our sliding glass door so that I am certain when we are crossing from Pacific to Atlantic.According to our waiter, the reason the waters are so turbulent here is because the water level of the Pacific Ocean is much higher than that of the Atlantic. When the two meet the water just falls and flies everywhere. As we finish our crossing our captain informs us that we are now true sailors. He also makes fun of the Norwegian ship because they turned around instead of following us around the cape. We will not have to deal with that ship again until our last day, in Montivideo, Uruguay. Later we go to the pool to look at the Penguin Club fools swim in the freezing waters from Cape Horn. While we were at the cape they refilled the pool with those waters and anyone who wishes to swim in the freezing pool will get a Cape Horn Penguin Club certificate. We get there and there is steam coming off the water. They filled the water at the cape but then heated it as well. If we had known this ahead of time we would have brought home extra certificates. We did get ones for actually making the crossing of Cape Horn though. As we get further into the day heading north now, we clear the cloudy weather and it starts really heating up from here on. The water is still pretty wicked compared to the Pacific.
During lunchtime we find that we are not very hungry. We go to the Colony Club and play quite a few games of chess. It’s a nice afternoon, and we are very well matched against each other. Denise lets Todd win one after every two wins she racks up. After a while we decide it’s time to go find lunch. We agree to go check out the snacks at the Oceanview Café instead of a full blown lunch. We should have tried this place earlier!! The “snacks” here are great! Denise had a grilled tuna sandwich and a bowl of clam chowder. Todd had the rueben sandwich plate. This food is great!! These are not just snacks. We are going to be coming here more. Later that evening we enjoy a nice dinner with Carlos and Aura. Our plans for later this evening are to go back to the Colony Club for the second round of the “Karaoke Superstar” tournament. Those of you who know us well know that Denise is the singer in the tribe. Todd will sing if he gets drunk enough or feels comfortable with the crowd, but does not consider himself a palatable singer. But Denise wants to go compete so Todd is going too. Carlos and Aura are excited about seeing Denise sing so they meet us up there. We get our drink going on and pretty soon Todd has signed up to sing too. The song selection is very light. Not only light, but half of them are Spanish songs. So Denise can’t sing “Black Velvet” and Todd’s out of luck because there’s no “Smooth”. 
Denise goes with her backup song, “Crazy for You” and does a wonderful job (of course). Todd had to try something entirely new, “Crocodile Rock”. During his performance, as 
Elton John’s song goes into high falsetto range, it pops into Todd’s mind to grab his pants and yank them high while singing this part. This brought the crowd to uproarious laughter and led Todd into the Karaoke Superstar finals. We went for Denise, but things turned somehow. Carlos and Aura retired to their cabin and we went upstairs to the 
Hollywood Odyssey for smokes and jazz until the music was done. If only this were everyday life. This evening, Zen Bunny makes an encore appearance.Day 12. We spend the day at sea today. No scenery whatsoever except the occasional bird hovering around. The day consists of sleeping in, chess, pisco sours and naps. This evening at dinner was the only thing out of the ordinary. We went to the Portofino Italian restaurant for the murder mystery dinner theater.
The evening starts in the Colony Club where we are served champagne. The couple whose heads we look at the backs of every evening sit next to us. We introduce ourselves and then the wife introduces herself as Marilyn. The husband extends his hand and says, “And I’m Vern…know what I mean?” We like them immediately. Todd starts talking with him about their personal bartender and he tells us that she’s his new best friend. Well, the champagne keeps coming and the show starts. These actors are TERRIBLE. The worst of them is an early 20s male playing a female fortune teller. When she makes a comment about “terrible odor” emanating from Todd and telling him to “take a shower” he speaks back to her/him and, sometime after the phrase “matchbook acting school”, the fortune teller turns and tells him to hush up because it’s her show and not his. He laughs and obeys. After the introduction of characters the action adjourns to the Portofino Restaurant. The wine is bottomless and so we indulge ourselves with quite a few glasses. When the characters take turns coming to our table for any questions we may have, everyone has something smart to say. Todd, well you know Todd, he also has some witty things to say about character relationships. They don’t seem to respond well to him. Neither of us cares much. We are having a ball with Vern and Marilyn, a German couple and a Mexican couple. Our table is a laugh factory, and our companions are very fun. We have no idea how many glasses of wine we consumed because as soon as our glasses got half empty they were immediately refilled. We only know that we had tons of fun. After the “performance”, we find Zen bunny being hung on the rack until he tells what he knows.
(No! Not the Rack!)
Then we retire to the balcony for smokes and conversation. Yawn. Stretch. We’ve got a busy day scheduled for tomorrow so we had better get to sleep.
