A test of patience and resilience

Each can celebrate their own personal triumphs. For the second successive Vendée Globe Dutreux has sailed a magnificent race. He sails a boat which will be the first of the 2016 Vendée Globe generation boats to finish, up with or just right behind newer generation boats. And Crémer’s project started very late which meant she was always up against qualification deadlines as well as suffering damage on the Transat CIC which meant a technical stopover in the Azores, fighting to the finish long after her rivals and the consequent need to sail a steady New York Vendée to ensure her qualification. 

Some way south, Sam Davies (Initiatives Coeur) and Boris Herrmann (Malizia-Seaexplorer) – just at the latitude of the Straits of Gibraltar – are contemplating their best timing to arrive after this storm. Davies already made a painful U turn to keep herself out of the worst of the system and Boris is modulating his pace to achieve the same goal. 

Sam reported, “Everything is fine on board, it's not easy mentally to do what I'm doing. I'm watching the boats that are arriving, tomorrow evening I'm going to see the boats I was arriving with, I might not even watch their arrival because it's going to be hard. They're good friends, but it's super frustrating. But I have no regrets, when I look at the weather, it's like in the forecast, so it's not like it's calmed down and I could have actually gotten through. It reassures me that I made the right choice, there was no other way for me, it would have been too dangerous. I've been marking time for almost two days, it's better to wait where it's calm than where there's already war, it allowed me to recover a little after my food poisoning. But I have trouble resting because I'm always looking for a way to get there, I keep asking myself questions, it's stressful... But it's still calm, it's really weird to be able to put something down and it won't fall, to move around the boat without risking hurting myself... I'm probably going to set off again in difficult conditions, so I'm going to need strength, I'm doing my best to recover physically and be able to face the storm, and mentally I'm trying not to think too much, and I have lots of messages that are good, from sailors who understand this difficult choice. It took a long time to make this decision. I've been monitoring this arrival for almost a week, it was the conditions after my arrival that were the real problem. At first I believed in it, our boats are made to sail with strong winds, the line was passable, I knew it would be alone and without being able to take my team on board after crossing the line given the conditions, but I thought I would go to La Rochelle. Except that apparently La Rochelle is not that easy with the weather forecast, the approach is also dangerous, and the boat would not have been protected enough. I looked for solutions, my team too, but there was no solution in any port... And given my conditions, given my fatigue, it was not reasonable... I set a waypoint to decide, and I made the decision not to commit to going all the way to the finish. It was a relief in a way, but it was a huge disappointment at the same time. After 75 days, of course, you can't wait to arrive... Every day more at sea, it's more risks. I saw myself finishing with 3 boats until the end, letting them go is a big blow to morale, there is no more adrenaline of the regatta and giving your all all the time. I find myself with Boris, who is not moving very fast with his foil problem, but it is not really a race for him or for me. But I keep a positive attitude, I am also here for the Initiatives Cœur project, and for the children! Finishing is super important. I am watching for a window to be able to arrive on Thursday. On Tuesday there are 10-meter waves in the Bay of Biscay, it is not possible to go there. But Tuesday evening, it could pass, it will be tough, but at Cape Finisterre I should pass just when it calms down, with 5-6 meters of waves. The forecasts are not always accurate, but I hope that the depression will pass right over us and be sheltered in the heart of the depression when crossing the line. That is the theory. It will depend on the trajectory of this depression. So I'm not at full speed but I'm approaching on the road to continue monitoring the weather conditions, if this window doesn't pass, it's really complicated because even the other boats behind risk overtaking us by going around the Azores.

And Boris echoes many of Sam’s feelings, “ I'm doing very well mentally and physically, I'm resting enough, I have everything I need to tackle the last event. Strategy for the next few hours, it's still calm, I'm still in the anticyclone, it's mild, I'm on deck and I'm looking at a magnificent sky, a sunset just under the gray, along the horizon, it's very beautiful. I'm in no hurry with the bog low pressure, I'm trying to get just behind the worst of it, we don't really know how it's going to evolve, there might be a possibility of getting on the evening of the 28th. I'm carrying on on my way, and I'm going at my relaxed speed, with the J2. I could be with big sails but that wouldn't change the speed either! I'm not actually in waiting mode but above all I've prepared my boat for the storm. Tomorrow we will progress towards the North, and I think I can adapt my speed to the files, and I will see if I can perhaps advance a little faster to perhaps cross the line on the 28th or if I really want to slow down and arrive on the 29th. There will be a lot of sea and a lot of wind so really why not wait 36 ​​more hours? I am also wary if I wait too long I’ll find myself upwind and the road is still long. And the files can still change and I could find myself with more wind, I don't really want to wait, Sam is doing the same thing and is progressing slowly towards the North, we will do that together.” 

And Belgian Denis van Weynbergh said, “In terms of morale  it's really going well, we're happy to be in the Atlantic, it's a big episode in the round the world race. We've done the hardest part but a hard part is still to come, we have to go up the entire Atlantic! Physically, we feel that fatigue is starting to set in, we have to be careful not to get injured, to hydrate well, when we do maneuvers, I see that it takes longer, that I get out of breath more quickly, but we try to rest. Before and after Cape Horn, it was quite trying! The Indian Ocean was a complicated, vicious and sneaky sea, boat-breakers, as much as the Pacific was nicer. Cape Horn on the other hand I don't have a very good memory of it, I didn't see anything at night, and I had a very rough sea before, the boat was banging, I broke two or three things on board. And after Cape Horn I had a large calm zone not easy to manage, but now it's good and I've come out of the Roaring Fifties, it's a big step!