This sailor won the toughest regatta in the world and saved a life. He needs to get Joe Biden to his knees – and he’s playing with fire

She shines, you can also see that in the dark. Kirsten Neuschäfer entered the port of Les Sables-d’Olonne on the French Atlantic coast at 7:43 pm on 27 April on her “Minnehaha” to cheers and Bengali fire. The South African has achieved what no other woman and only six men have done before her: she traveled the world alone and non-stop in 233 days and 19 hours. The Golden Globe Race is considered one of the toughest sailing races.

Not because Speedmasters glide more through the air than through the water here, no speed records are broken either. If you ask Kirsten Neuschäfer about the most beautiful moment during the race, the 39-year-old recalls the moment she ran aground near Cape Town: “All night and into the morning, humpback whales appeared right next to the boat. At daybreak dolphins and seals joined – all very close. That really filled my heart with joy.”

The stars have sailed

And yet, of the 16 skippers who took part, only three managed to circumnavigate the globe without ever setting foot on land. The Golden Globe Race was first held by the Sunday Times in 1968, when only one sailor made it to the finish. To mark the 50th anniversary, the race resumed in 2018 and the third event followed in 2022 – under much the same conditions as then: the ships must not have been built before less than 1988. They must be long keels, which makes them slow , but they are only 32 to 36 feet tall. The biggest challenge, however, is the technology, which is largely lacking. Navigation is not done with GPS, but with the sextant and view of the sky – as in 1968.

It’s a race for madmen, for adventurers. Skipper Neuschäfer is such a person: “The outdoors and adventure have attracted me from an early age.” And it’s not her first. She has crossed the African continent from north to south by bicycle. To prepare for the regatta, she spent many hours alone on her cutter “Minnehaha”: “Preparing and strengthening the boat was the most important thing – being able to rely on it. But it was also important to spend a lot of time at sea before the race time, knowing where I can improve things on the boat and knowing how to sail fast.” Apart from a light shellfish infestation, the “Minnehaha” survived 30,000 nautical miles.

Whoever spends 233 days on a ship enters into a relationship with him, you need each other to withstand wind and weather. The experienced skipper is not afraid of loneliness, on the contrary. Sometimes, as she said in her inaugural address, she gets off the boat in the middle of the ocean and swims out into the open sea to feel the vastness even more clearly.

Sea rescue southeast of Cape Town

The fact that Kirsten Neuschäfer learned how to drive her “Minnehaha” to peak performance should save lives. In mid-November, the Finnish skipper Tapio Lehtinen fell into distress 460 nautical miles southeast of Cape Town, the distress signal came from his life raft. One had to assume that he should have left his boat. Closest to him was the South African, who immediately changed course: “I did everything I could to get the boat moving as quickly as possible and stayed at the helm all night to make sure I was on the most direct course possible. came to Tapio’s location.” The rescue was successful, she was able to safely board the Finn initially and a Chinese freighter took him back to the mainland.

From that moment on she was able to redraw her course, the pace was good. She soon left the Indian skipper Abhilash Tomy (43) and the Austrian Michael Guggenberger (44) behind. On the way, she slept from dusk to dawn. She started the day with a tour of the deck, breakfast was cereal and coffee. Upon arrival, a French journalist noted that, unlike her male competitors, the skipper had barely lost any weight. Maybe the men are just used to their wives cooking for them, was the ironic reply.

What would you have missed the most? “Nothing special,” says Kirsten Neuschäfer, “when I got stuck in the stillness on my way back north, I really, really missed the wind – almost like a living being.” There is nothing worse for a sailor than when the wind dies down and the sails touch the mast. (aargauerzeitung.ch)