When audiovisual producer and photographer Leonardo Rodríguez learned of the upcoming adventure of the Chilean Jorge Salamanca, who had rented his sailboat on several occasions, he immediately proposed documenting the trip.
The route includes a voyage from Spain to Cape Horn (Chile), the southern border of the South American continent and one of the world's most dangerous maritime challenges.
Rodriguez didn't imagine the trip would make him one of a handful of Venezuelans, perhaps the first to reach this part of the world (he couldn't confirm).
“George told me about the plan he had. He lived in Chile and Spain for over 40 years after immigrating in the eighties. He told me his entire struggle as a migrant and his childhood dreams of sailing the South Seas. “His grandfather and ancestors were part of the Chilean Navy (…) and he wanted to sail from Spain to Cape Horn with his sailboat,” he says.
“I didn't know anything about navigation, but when I explored Cape Horn and the adventure that George wanted to do, the adventure captured me and I told him we should document it. I said to him: 'If you'll let me, I'll join you on this ship, this adventure. We will document, and I don't know much about it as a precedent; I think it's very unique and exclusive at the moment,” Venezuela said in an interview with Voice of America.
Voyage to Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the last point of land in front of Antarctica, where two of the world's most important oceans meet: the Pacific and the Atlantic.
Due to its southern latitude, almost complete absence of land, strong winds, waves that can exceed 30 meters and ice, navigation in this area is considered dangerous. The characteristics of these waters have caused about 1,000 shipwrecks and at least 10,000 deaths.
Leonardo Rodriguez kept this information in mind, which is why he insisted on documenting it.
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