Susanne Huber-Curphey receives the OCC Seamanship Award
by Daria Blackwell / OCC 27 Oct 2020 10:38 UTC
Martin Schiller and Susanne Huber-Curphey with the OCC Seamanship Award aboard the yacht Infinity © Ocean Cruising Club
The award, which should have been presented in Annapolis in April, was delayed in reaching Susanne by a long journey caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
From Martin Schiller:
Today I had the honour of presenting the OCC Seamanship Award to Susanne Huber-Curphey at Infinity.
Susanne received the prize for her one and a half solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the world from the renowned British* Ocean Cruising Club. In 1968 the Golden Globe announced a race around the world. One of the 11 participating sailors was Bernard Moitessier, who gave away the victory while in the lead and sailed another halfway around the world until Tahiti.
Fifty years later, in memory of the sailing legend Bernard Moitessier, the Longue Route was a non-commercial re-run of the race. Susanne was the only participant who took the example of Bernard Moitessier as an opportunity to round the Cape of Good Hope a second time after rounding Cape Horn. She did not sail to Tahiti but to Tasmania. In total, the trip was 33,043 nautical miles and lasted 251 days - alone and without stopping. What an incredible achievement.
The trip caused a sensation worldwide and Susanne received the Seamanship Award from the Ocean Cruising Club.
From Susanne Huber-Curphey:
This afternoon I was happily surprised when the package sent by Peter Paternotte arrived from the Netherlands. It is a shame that I couldn't meet Peter in Sneek, as Nehaj and I had already departed to Germany. Thanks a lot, Peter, for sending the package to Bremerhaven.
I had the feeling that a little ceremony was due for the presentation of this wonderful Seamanship Award. I contacted my new friend Martin Schiller to ask him for some secret favour. On just one hour's notice, Martin managed a wonderful welcome on his lovely yacht Infinity. Freshly brewed coffee and his home-baked delicious cheesecake were already waiting, together with his typical heartwarming smile.
Bremerhaven is the home port of the renowned German scientific research vessel Polarstern, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI). It is well known that Martin Schiller is one of the very essential key persons to make those incredible Arctic and Antarctic expeditions run smoothly and on many of those long-lasting expeditions Martin had been on board the Polarstern.
I asked Martin to please open this mysterious package sent to me from the OCC. It had such a long journey from South Africa to England, further on to the Netherlands, and finally to Germany! My simple camera stayed in the pocket as Martin is an expert in photography as well.
My warm gratitude goes to the Ocean Cruising Club for choosing Nehaj and me for the Seamanship Award 2019.
John Franklin once again performed his perfect carving skills for this beautiful plaque and I can assure him that it matches the previous one perfectly in its superb look and deep shine from exactly the same Iroko tree, thanks a lot, John.
With my warm greetings,
Susanne
This article has been provided by the courtesy of Ocean Cruising Club.