The message is tight: "Hekla" has been on the way to Cape Town since yesterday, writes Georg Schimmelpfennig from board. Problems with the steering gear and an apparently painful fall in the cabin prompted him to abandon his non-stop circumnavigation plan. "How it will continue after that has not yet been decided. Participation in the Longue Route 2018 has ended because of the stop," said the solo sailor.
At the end of August he set out to take part in the Longue Route, like a dozen other single-handed sailors of various nationalities, a non-stop trip around the world "in the spirit of Moitessier". In contrast to the Golden Globe Race, which is currently running in parallel, the Longue Route is expressly not intended to be a regatta. There are therefore hardly any rules to which the participants have to submit.
The previous course of Schimmelpfennig with his "Hekla" and the current position southwest of Cape Town
Like Schimmelpfennig, a large number of other longue route participants had already failed in the weeks before; most of them had to interrupt their trips prematurely or even end them completely due to technical problems. One of the few who have not yet had to stop and who has already covered a considerable distance around the world is the German Susanne Huber-Curphey.
Huber-Curphey so far without stopping
She set off with her "Nehaj" at the beginning of summer from the northeast coast of the US, left the Atlantic and Indian Oceans behind and already about three quarters of the way through the South Pacific in the wake. At the moment, Huber-Curphey still has around 1,300 nautical miles to Cape Horn.
The notorious landmark on the southern tip of South America was the first and so far the only one of the current non-stop sailors to pass the French Golden Globe participant Jean Luc Van Den Heede. He is now back in the Atlantic, heading north. He is followed by the Dutchman Mark Slats, who will need a few more days before he too has Cape Horn to port abeam and can turn the bow back north.