09/01/2026
Tattoos have a long and storied history for sailors. In a sense, they were used as a resume of sorts, documenting one's achievements. One of the more impressive ones is rounding Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America, and the traditional tattoo for this feat is a full rigged ship.
Our 2nd Mate Caroline rounded Cape Horn a couple years ago and celebrated the occasion by getting her tattoo. She elected to put her own spin on it. Since she rounded the Horn on the Barque EUROPA, she got a tattoo of a barque instead.
With her permission, her journal entry from the rounding:
"I survived Cape Horn!! We saw some of the Islands off of Chile early yesterday morning, and even some snow covered mountains! At 12:42 on October 18th, we passed the official mark of Cape Horn. It was super fun, making about 8.2-9.5 kts of speed, with about 3-4 ft of waves. A very calm rounding, but it gave us the opportunity to get about 3 miles off shore. From the ship, we were able to see the light house, and even the Cape Horn monument! Everyone was super excited about it, and I have some really awesome pictures.
I was expecting to not see anything while rounding the horn, but we had view of land for about 18 hours. Now, we are sailing at 1-2 kts, and only making headway becuase of the 1.5 kt current. Everything is looking good so far, and we are even ahead of schedule! As it stands right now, we might anchor off of the west side of the Falklands and do a landing party with the small boat to shore. I have no more details about that though. Very happy to have survived, and it was a really amazing experience."
She was also inducted into the Dutch International Society of Cape Horners, the third youngest person to be so. We here on LETTIE are immensely proud (and a little jealous) of her!
Do you have questions about sailor tattoos, or want to see which ones our crew have? Come sailing with us in September! Tickets available at www.lettieg.org or at our ticket booth on Dobbins Landing.
See you on the water!
