More Photos from Hermit Island

		More Photos from Hermit Island Click on photos to enlarge
HOME		April 28, 2001 Photo: William K. Spence This is not the same picture as the one on the Home page. However, it was taken just a few minutes later. The view looked just like this photo.	Tiffany Hanson looks toward Cape Horn April 28, 2001 Photo: William K. Spence Tiffany Hanson ( my adventurous daughter) tries to spot Cape Horn about 20 miles to the SE. At this point, she's looking forward to rounding and climbing to the top if possible. The rounding was one neither of us will forget -- for different reasons. Monticleer is the name of the sland in the distance.
	Trees have a hard time getting started
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Looking NE from atop Hermit Island. If you continue to rotate to the right you will see the view below.

Snow is beginning to fill the crevices of the exposed granite. The snow is not fluffy, but a cross between

Visitors who climb Hermit Island add their personal rock to this pile. Tiffany and I add one to mark our climb. I added mine to mark my struggle to get up here. The clouds, mist, wind, and weather conditions change by the minute. All these photos were taken within about two hours.

During this time it snowed and then the wind gusted up to about 40 knots. During one sustained gust, I extended my arms, bat-like, exposing as much area to the wind as possible and with the wind at my back, walked up a pile of granite that had a slope of about 35º. It was an interesting experiment.

We will leave our anchorage (see photo of boat in anchorage above) and move left to right through the pass between Maxwell Island (far side of pass) and Hermit Island (we are standing on it). This is a very dangerous pass. It was good to have the 30 inch prop and the 140 HP diesel on the Sarah W during this part of the trip. We motored between the huge slabs of granite where waves crashed and sent spray flying 20 to 40 feet high as the Sarah V rolled, yawed, and plowed forward against the current and wind.

When this picture was taken, the channel appeared to be calm, but Williwaws can blast down unexpectedly and within seconds you are in serious trouble. Two weeks before this photo was taken, Captain Henk was caught in 80 knot winds and his main was blown out. He is an excellent sailor and avoids putting his ship in harms way, but even he gets a surprise sometimes.

When he checked with the Naval station on Cape Horn and they said the winds were around 70 knots, he decided we should stay here another day and wait for better weather.

If you look closely you can see a shore line running up from the water over the rocks to the trees. This line held the the stern of the Sarah V. steady when the Williwaws hit. Another line ran from the Sarah V to the shore just to our left. We used the dinghy to tow the line to shore. Both lines are about 100 yards long. Down here, hurricane force winds are always a possibility.

Looks clam, doesn't it? About two hours after this photo was taken we were hit with a Williwaw with 70 knot winds. It only lasted 5 or ten minutes, but it got my attention! I did record the sound of several Williwaws and plan to put them on this site soon.

Note line running from the stern to shore in case a Williwaw hits. The 100 lb Bruce anchor never moved..

On the left is our stalwart Captain, Henk Boersma. Captain Henk is an affable, amiable sailor and is also an excellent cook. Importantly, he's always in a good mood. His sailing philosophy is essentially to avoid problems. However, if a problem does occur, he is certainly capable of dealing with it. He's a fascinating guy and I had great confidence in him during our two week journey. He speaks English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and probably Dutch (he is a native of Holland).