“I want to see what it feels like”
This shift between two personalities is also what Violette Dorange, the youngest of the 2024 edition, describes. Despite only being 23 years old, the race rookie says she “loves being alone at sea. I’m a bit introverted, but I feel like it frees me up, it makes me creative, I always have lots of ideas on the water!” On the other hand it will be her first experience of such a long time solo, and she admits that she “fears boredom much more”, which she “can’t stand”. “Loneliness is okay, but there always has to be action. So I listen to a lot of podcasts, books, music, videos and audios from my loved ones, otherwise it becomes complicated for my mind, and the lack of people around me can become difficult”.
And of course now on land in our ultra-connected society, opportunities to spend so much time alone are almost non-existent. And what if this was, ultimately, a true luxury of these 21st century sailors? “I’m so looking forward to this solitude, that’s largely why I dream of the Vendée Globe,” says rookie Benjamin Ferré. “I want to see what it’s like, if it’s really like psychoanalysis. Three months may seem like a long time, but in fact it’s a definitive choice and quite ephemeral in terms of our whole lifetime!”
“Kids are terrible!”
That element of choice is something that Clarisse Crémer also agrees on. “It’s a chosen solitude, for a fixed period, it has nothing to do with that social solitude that was imposed, which ultimately affects many more people in our society, and which is more intense,” says Crémer who will be starting her second Vendée Globe. Four years ago she recalls she suffered a bit from loneliness per se, but rather “from the consequences of loneliness”. “Being alone creates a lot of stress for me, it feeds any lack of self-confidence, sometimes I feel like I’m not capable, and even if I work hard on it, it’s hard to overcome”, explains the skipper of L'OCCITANE en Provence, who nevertheless acknowledges that this time that being away from her daughter, especially during the winter holiday season, is going to be much harder to live with.
“Seeing the kids is bad!” jokes Romain Attanasio in unison, who does recall “the real boost to morale when you receive the video of your kid opening his Christmas presents”. In his first Vendée Globe, in 2016, the sailor from Haute-Savoie took 110 days to complete the loop. “Then, I really suffered a lot from loneliness, I wouldn’t want to do it again,” explains the man who nevertheless says “liking being alone, it’s something I need in life, which allows me to think.” Why this difficulty? “What we have trouble realizing is that in everyday life, when we have a doubt, we go see a friend, and just talking to them about it helps us see things more clearly. The fact of harbouring doubts all the time and not having someone to discuss it with, that’s what’s really complicated to understand.”
Technological progress
The Vendée Globe adventure is a bit little less solitary than in the past. If routing and meteorological assistance are obviously still strictly prohibited, technological advances – always on internet - makes it easier to communicate with earth, teams, loved ones, but also the tens of thousands of anonymous people who follow and encourage the skippers via social networks.
