This will be the first of a series of posts that document our South American cruise on the ms Zaandam from Holland America Lines. The featured image is the Albatross Memorial sculpture on the top of Hornos Island. The sculpture was unveiled in 1992 as a memorial to all of the sailors that lost their lives trying to round Cape Horn. This is a notoriously dangerous sea passage where you pass from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean if heading west. It is famous for its many storms and high waves rolling in from Antarctica, nearly 1,000 kilometers to the south.

Here is a picture of a real albatross in the water beside our ship.

Here is the point where we are about to make the ocean-to-ocean crossing of of this smaller island:

Here is a short movie of the crossing. The captain sounded the horn at the exact moment we crossed into the Pacific Ocean:

In the next several days, I will start posting from the beginning of our trip, which started in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I hope you all follow along. Comments are always appreciated.