Great feat of the Amerigo Vespucci training ship - the historic sailing ship of the Italian Navy - which, as part of its world tour, rounded Cape Horn, the southernmost hermitage on the American continent known to be one of the most challenging passages for navigation. Cape Horn is where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet, an area affected by continuous disturbances created by proximity to Antarctica. These push huge masses of water toward Drake Strait, where the seafloor abruptly changes from 4,000 to 100 meters. The passage, which occurred for the first time in the 90-plus years of the sailing ship's life, was made possible by careful and meticulous navigation planning and assessment of weather and sea conditions. Doubling Cape Horn is one of the highlights of the world tour, a new page in the "art of navigation", and a new goal achieved in the long history of Amerigo Vespucci, which now continues its voyage in the Pacific Ocean. Next April 28 it will enter the port of Valparaiso in Chile.
|