SIGHTINGS how to get away
rush hour at cape horn
Back in spring 2017, Lewis Bennett and Isabella Hellman were supposed to be enjoying a belated honeymoon aboard Bennett's 37-ft catamaran Surf into Summer. The couple — he 40, she 41 — had been married for three months, but it was the first time they'd been able to slip away together without their 9-month-old daughter, who had been left in the care of Hellman's family. After two weeks calling on various Caribbean islands — including St. Maarten and Cuba — they were on the final leg home to Florida when, on May 14, something went terribly wrong. According to Bennett, as night fell, the boat was motorsailing north under autopilot and Hellman had taken the first watch — she was wearing a life-
With "summer" settling upon the Southern Ocean, Cape Horn has seen a virtual rush hour. After Golden Globe Race leader JeanLuc Van Den Heede rounded in late November, Randall Reeves slid past the Horn about a week later, on November 29, 2018. Then it was second-place Golden Glober Mark Slat's turn, rounding just a few days after Reeves. Then, third-place Golden Globe racer Uku Randmaa from Estonia rounded on December 19, followed by worldrecord seeker Jeanne Socrates later that day. Cape Horn is sailing's Everest. Reaching it is the pinnacle of achievement after enduring thousands of miles in the high latitudes. For the battered and greatly thinned-out Golden Globe fleet, the Horn marks a long-awaited exit from the Southern Ocean, the final major hurdle before hanging a left and hitting the homestretch up the Atlantic for Les Sables d'Olonne, France. But for Reeves and Socrates, the Horn is just the beginning — though still a milestone, especially for first-time rounder Reeves on his Figure 8 Voyage. "My god, not just to round the damned thing, satisfaction plenty,
BOTTOM ROW: JEANNE SOCRATES
RANDALL REEVES
RANDALL REEVES
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Clockwise from top left. Randall Reeves snaps a selfie with sailing's most famous landmark; breaking waves during what Reeves called the "beautiful force 8 blow"; Reeves sailed out of the Gate in late September; scenes from Jeanne Socrates in lower latitudes; the skipper at her nav station; Socrates snapped a shot of Cape Horn before seeing another sailboat near the rock.
Page 48 •
Latitude 38
• January, 2019
