Award after cruising through Covid
Ginger and Peter Niemann have been awarded the 2021 Blue Water Medal by the Cruising Club of America for two circumnavigations that took them both to north and south high latitudes.
From 2006 to 2010, the Niemanns sailed some 50,000 miles on a west-about circumnavigation via Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope on Marcy, a 47-foot sloop they converted from a schooner.
Then in 2017, they set out from Washington State on Irene, a 52ft ketch to sail around the world in the opposite direction, eastabout. By heading through the Northwest Passage and staying in the northern hemisphere, they never crossed their first track around, making landfall at Greenland, Newfoundland, and the US East Coast before crossing the Atlantic to Ireland.
After touring the Atlantic coast of Europe, and heading south to the Mediterranean, the couple were stranded in Turkey when the Covid-19 pandemic began. Unwilling to leave Irene, they decided to head home to the Pacific north-west through the Suez Canal, and set off on a nonstop voyage across the Indian Ocean during the monsoon season.
After two months and 6,000 miles of sailing, the Niemanns arrived in Batam, Indonesia only to find that their permission to stay in the country had been revoked. Singapore let them stay but they were not allowed to leave the boat, and they lived on board Irene at the Changi Sailing Club for five months. In all, they spent nearly 300 days aboard, unable to go ashore in any country. In February 2021, they departed on the long voyage home via Japan and the Aleutians. We’ll have a full feature on the Niemanns’ incredible voyage in a forthcoming issue of Yachting World.