In glorious sailing weather and only a balmy 4 Beaufort, residual swell from the southwest overlapped with a wind sea to form a wave almost four metres in size, which rolled in from astern and threw the "Hippopotamus" onto its side.
The Roevers were probably just unlucky, as one sea rescuer realised. As Sönke Roever reports on his website, waves like the one they encountered only form extremely rarely under the given conditions. The approach to the lagoon is considered challenging - but as the "Hippopotamus" crew were aware of this, they timed their arrival to enter on Sunday morning in calm weather conditions. But misfortune took its course.
The two sailors, who had originally set off on a trip to New Zealand in May 2007 and are now continuing their journey around the world, were lucky in their misfortune. Nothing happened to them. Only the ship and the equipment suffered considerable damage when the "Hippopotamus" overtook at an angle of over 110 degrees. Many of the electronic systems are no longer operational due to the ingress of salt water and have to be repaired or even replaced.
In a week-long repair marathon, the two circumnavigators have now managed to get the ship ready for sea and at least find a temporary solution for the equipment that has broken down. Today they want to take advantage of a gap in the weather and sail to Cape Town to carry out the remaining repair work.
Further information and a detailed report of the circumnavigation can be found here: www.hippopotamus.de.
