Obituary for Erich Wilts: "A lifetime of sailing is not enough to discover everything"
Ursula Meer
· 09.12.2022
Driven by the spirit of discovery, this pioneer among cruising sailors has marked a pattern in the world's oceans with his wake, more than 350,000 miles long and often beyond the usual long-distance routes. It all began in his home waters in Leer in East Frisia, on the Ems and in the Wadden Sea, which he explored as a child in a dinghy. Later, as a student, he signed up for longer trips on the North Sea and crossed the Atlantic for the first time in 1962.
At home, he sailed his Finn dinghy across the Wadden Sea to Norderney almost every weekend. "That was the most impressive sailing experience I've ever had: With the small boat away from the coast, and you could barely see the island in the distance." In view of his sailing feats, this is an almost unbelievable statement, which was probably influenced in no small part by the fact that he met "his" Heide there in 1969. Since then, it has been hard to imagine them apart, their marriage a symbiosis or, as they both described it: "You can't get more together than that".
It was less than a year ago that YACHT visited the two of them in their home in Heidelberg and spoke to them about the adventures and challenges they had sought out in more than 50 years of sailing together. Erich, his eyes shining between his curly hair and full beard, spoke about it in a deep, calm voice, Heide completing his sentences and he hers. Shortly before Heide's and his eightieth birthday, it was time to look back and also forward: to bring the "Freydis" from Iceland to Scotland and then at some point to Leer; but not necessarily in a straight line. "I can go to some places many times and never get bored. Ile Ouessant, for example, or the Scilly Islands: I want to go there again and again and it makes me feel at home. These are highlights that I don't tick off, but always look forward to," enthused Erich. Perhaps Cape Horn again? The two of them couldn't agree on that; Erich would have liked to.
Cape Horn as a place of longing
Probably also because the infamous Cape was the start of the Wilts' daring voyages. It was a small book that inspired both of them to make big plans: "The first German yachtsmen to sail around Cape Horn" describes how two Berliners dared to do what they thought was impossible in 1972. "Before that, Cape Horn was beyond good and evil for us, but then it became real. We actually wanted to go to the Caribbean. That had been cancelled. Cape Horn was calling," said Erich in a tone that other people use to talk about deciding between a shirt and a jumper. They rounded it off, and the whole of South America with it; once you've been travelling.
Their curiosity drove both of them throughout their lives. Back then, in the early 1980s, sailing around the world was not considered to be a somewhat extended holiday cruise and cruising yachtsmen were pushing the anchor chain into each other's hands in every bay. There was still plenty of unspoilt nature and new cultures to discover in the warmer latitudes.
But two or three badly taken photos of a single-handed sailor from Antarctica turned this part of the circumnavigator's life into short warm-up phases for the Wilts: "Cape Horn, and then you go straight on," was Erich's East Frisian description of the decision to venture into those remote and deserted, dangerous high latitudes, which try to shake off every visitor with thunderous storms and offer "dangerous" shore leave.
Always bouncing back after setbacks
They were stranded in Antarctica and spent a winter there, with the leaking boat in sight at a shelter. They fell dry on a rock at low tide in a storm, "shaken by the hurricane as if by a wild fist", and lost their second boat in the tsunami off Fukushima. "There were evenings when I lay in my bunk and thought my heart would burst," said Erich, recounting many a hair-raising situation. But they got up again and again, setting off again and again towards the ice and the storm. They received numerous prizes and awards for this courage and their top sailing performances.
There were evenings when I lay in my bunk and thought my heart would burst
"It's quite a challenge to sail where it's extreme. Anyone who crosses the Antarctic Convergence and sails in the Southern Ocean is an extreme sailor. Whether you like it or not," said Erich, describing the trips. But once they had fought their way through, they were able to discover things that hardly anyone else ever gets to see: bizarre rock and ice formations that change shape with the travelling light, penguins, seals and sea lions that don't see humans as a danger and are just as curious as the astonished visitors, deep silence or roaring, bursting ice floes. "One lifetime of sailing is not enough to discover all the coasts and bays," he was often heard to say.
Finally, Erich's dream was to visit the Sandwich Islands again
Erich was particularly taken with the Sandwich Islands: the volcanoes, hissing sparks into the night sky and emitting toxic vapours. He called these inhuman craters, which rise steeply out of the South Atlantic, "almost unbelievable, unimaginable. I actually wanted to go there again now, at the end of my life. What I saw there fascinated me the most."
Countless suitably reverent sailors took them with them, in books, pictures and lectures, sharing with hundreds the fascination of their boat in these furthest corners of the earth. Some became friends for life. Just a few weeks ago, despite his serious illness, Erich spoke on the phone in a somewhat weak voice but full of anticipation about planned meetings with these long-time fellow sailors on the "Freydis" in Leer harbour. "I need this like a fish needs water: being together on board, talking about journeys and experiences with fellow travellers."
This optimism has carried Erich through his life, allowing him to weather storms and survive accidents. Always on his companion named "Freydis", which is now lying in Leer harbour in the care of good friends, brought over from Iceland by experienced skippers. But above all, always at the side of his wife Heide. Our deepest sympathy goes out to her.
