The Roevers want to sail from Hamburg to Auckland with their Gib Se106 "Hippopotamus" within just under two years. For their first major ocean crossing, the Hanseatic people took part in the ARC. In St. Luci, they have now been surprisingly rewarded with a prize.
Here is a report from on board the "Hippopotamus", which brought us from the Caribbean shortly before Christmas:
"Sometimes surprising things happen in life. Things that throw us off balance and pull the rug out from under our feet. This is what happened to us last night. We are sitting at the awards ceremony for the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) with two awards in hand and are happy ("fourth in class H according to calculated time" and "best pair over all classes according to calculated time").
A prize is still to be awarded that evening, but that doesn't affect us. Strictly speaking, that's not a price either, because you can't win it or sail it. It's more about an award: The SPIRIT OF THE ARC 2007 AWARD. We look around eagerly and wait to see which of our personal favorites will make the race. Suddenly we hear the name "hippopotamus" and we realize that they mean us. Tears of joy spring up in the eyes and the ground mentioned at the beginning seems to be disappearing under your feet. We absolutely did not expect that. Madness.
Now we have won a weekend for two in the Coconut Bay Resort. We do not yet know what exactly is behind this, because we will only receive the voucher during the course of the day. We are excited and will report. One thing is definitely clear: we will finally sleep in a real bed again. Dreamlike.
In comparison, not too much has happened since we arrived. We sleep a lot, clean up and tidy up, desalinate the ship, repair the stove, do a lot of laundry, greet other ships, celebrate at the numerous ARC parties and look for the leak that kept us busy on the crossing. One source of error is definitely a missing check valve on a bilge pump. In addition, water from the locker penetrates the ship's interior along the control cables. This is a constructive problem for Gib'Sea, but it's our turn, Epoxy makes a lot possible - but probably not until the New Year. Now recovery is the order of the day.
With these lines the ARC 2007 comes to an end. As the organizers have repeatedly emphasized, it was one of the stormiest and most demanding crossings in its history. In this respect, we are happy that we survived everything well. From now on we are back on our own.
The Caribbean is at our feet and we want to discover it. Today we continue to Marigot Bay, where the films "Dr. Doolittle" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" were filmed. Let's go to anchor and then the Christmas decorations will be found - maybe this will create a little Christmas spirit. Because even though the steel bands on the beach can also do "Jingle Bells", we still can't really imagine that it will be Christmas Eve in two days.
Christmas mood or not. We wish you all a Merry Christmas, health and reflective hours. Thanks also for the more than four hundred emails with congratulations and Christmas greetings. We'll be in touch in the new year.
Judith and Sönke"
Here is the link to the official ARC article: https://www.worldcruising.com/arc/newsarticle.aspx?page=S633338936327698750&ArchiveID=1&CategoryID=71&ItemID=3884&src