There is currently a lot of activity on the southern tip of South America. Both the first participants in the Golden Globe Race and the Longue Route 2018 are approaching the landmark, which is often stormy, or have already rounded it. It is the last of the three big capes on their non-stop trip around the world.
The French were the first to do so some time ago and by a large margin Jean Luc Van den Heede left the Pacific astern and sailed back into the Atlantic. With his "Matmut" he is currently almost on a par with Uruguay. His worst pursuer, the Dutchman Mark Slats, has Tierra del Fuego on port even further south and shortly the Falkland Islands on starboard.
Marriages at sea
Closest on their heels is not another Golden Globe participant, but the single-handed sailor Susanne Huber-Curphey. She sails with her "Nehaj" on the Longue Route, the competitor to the Golden Globe Race. The German is still a short distance northwest of Cape Horn, which she should reach in the next few days.
Your husband Tony Curphey, who also sails the Longue Route with his own boat, has clearly left it behind. The husband has just passed the southern tip of New Zealand and thus the entire Pacific ahead.
The magic eight
Another solo sailor is already around Cape Horn: The American Randall Reeves is in the South Atlantic and, unlike the other skippers, does not take a north course there, but continues eastwards.
Reeves set out from California a few weeks ago to sail non-stop around the Americas and Antarctica. It's his second attempt. The first time he had to stop repairs due to technical problems in Tierra del Fuego.
By the way, Reeves sails with a ship that is still known to many sailors in this country: His "Moli" is the former "Asma" of long-distance sailor Clark Stede, who at the time made a spectacular attempt to cross the Northwest Passage by boat.
The wild old ones
And another now famous sailor slowly but inexorably approaches Cape Horn: the British Jeanne Socrates. She has since had several failed and successful non-stop one-handed circumnavigations of the world in the wake, but now she wants to know again. In October she untied the lines of her "Nereida" near Vancouver. If she succeeds in sailing one-handed and non-stop around the world again, she would be the oldest person who has ever made it.
Unless, Stanley Paris makes her a spanner in the works. He is older than Socrates and recently started another one-handed non-stop attempt to circumnavigate the world with his "Kiwi Magic" built by Knierim, from Florida. A previous attempt had already failed on Bermuda.
First of all, Paris is now apparently again heading for Bermuda, in order to then tackle the record lap around the world from there.
The positions on December 4th, 2018