Great capes

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title: "Great capes" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["extreme-points-of-earth", "headlands", "headlands-of-new-zealand", "circumnavigation"] description: "Three major capes of the traditional clipper route" topic_path: "geography/new-zealand" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_capes" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Three major capes of the traditional clipper route ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/ClipperRoute.png" caption="The [[clipper route]] from the [[United Kingdom]] to [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]], by way of the great capes"] ::

In sailing, the great capes are three major capes of the continents in the Southern Ocean: Africa's Cape of Good Hope, Australia's Cape Leeuwin, and South America's Cape Horn.

Sailing

The great capes became landmarks in ocean voyaging due to the hazards they presented to shipping. The traditional clipper route followed the winds of the Roaring Forties south of the great capes.

Today, the great capes feature prominently in ocean yacht racing; many races and individual sailors follow the clipper route. A circumnavigation via the great capes is considered a noteworthy achievement. Joshua Slocum followed the route during the first solo circumnavigation of the world in 1895–1898 (though he didn't round Cape Horn, instead going through the Strait of Magellan); the Joshua Slocum Society International presented its Level 3 Golden Circle Award to later sailors who did the same.

In his book The Long Way, Bernard Moitessier wrote:

A great cape, for us, can't be expressed in longitude and latitude alone. A great cape has a soul, with very soft, very violent shadows and colours. A soul as smooth as a child's, as hard as a criminal's. And that is why we go.}}

Five southernmost capes

The five southernmost capes refer to the five geographically southern mainland (or large island) points on the Earth.

Sailors circumnavigating the world have used these five southernmost capes as goals on their route.

::data[format=table]

Cape	Location	Coordinates	Notes
Cape Horn	Chile		Hornos Island; Southernmost point in the Tierra del Fuego islands of South America and the official dividing point between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Roughly 2 degrees of latitude farther south than Chile's Cape Froward, the southernmost point on the mainland of South America, in the Strait of Magellan.
Cape Agulhas	South Africa		From Portuguese Cabo das Agulhas, for "Cape of Needles"; Southernmost point of Africa and the official dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Roughly 29 minutes of latitude farther south than the more commonly cited Cape of Good Hope.
West Cape Howe	Australia		Contains three "heads", with the easternmost Torbay Head being the southernmost point of the mainland of Western Australia. Roughly 46 minutes of latitude farther south than the more commonly cited Cape Leeuwin.
South East Cape	Australia		Southernmost point of the main island of Tasmania and the official dividing point between the Pacific and Indian oceans. Roughly 4° 30′ farther south than South Point on the Wilsons Promontory peninsula in Victoria. South Point, Victoria is the most southern mainland point of Australia, on the north side of the Bass Strait separating Tasmania from the southeast Australian mainland
South Cape / Whiore	New Zealand		Southernmost point of Stewart Island / Rakiura and the southernmost point of the main islands of New Zealand. Roughly 37 minutes of latitude farther south than Slope Point, the southernmost point of the South Island.
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References

References

1. [http://www.mcallen.lib.tx.us/books/circumna/ci_42cap.htm ''The Circumnavigators''] {{webarchive. link. (2006-05-10 , by Don Holm; '' Around the Three Capes''. Prentice-Hall, NY, 1974. {{ISBN). 0-13-134452-8 Retrieved February 5, 2006.
2. ''Along the Clipper Way'', Francis Chichester; page 78. Hodder & Stoughton, 1966. {{ISBN. 0-340-00191-7
3. [http://www.joshuaslocumsocietyintl.org/awards.htm ''Slocum Awards: Golden Circle Award''] {{Webarchive. link. (2002-12-03 , from the Joshua Slocum Society International. Retrieved February 13, 2006.)
4. Ross, Mick. (2023-03-01). "The World’s Most Famous Female Sailors Literally From Around the World » Grays Harbor Historical Seaport".
5. ''The Long Way'', by Bernard Moitessier; page 141. Sheridan House, 1995. {{ISBN. 0-924486-84-8

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