The first feeling when we wake up comes from the Pacific, and gives us a chill again… down our spines! The mound of ice immortalized this time by Oliver Heer (Tut Gut., 30th) almost resembles an innocent child's drawing which impresses with the height of its icy lip. If the Swiss-German navigator kept his distance to avoid any unwanted hugs, the warning is now very clear: there are still ice cubes north of the ZEA, and we will have to stay on the lookout! Especially Jingkun Xu (Singchain Team Haikou, 32nd) and Antoine Cornic (Human Immobilier, 31st) who follow closely… During the night, the latter left us a little message to report “a slack” not trivial for this always jovial colossus, but now this beautiful icy warning should put an end to his dark thoughts, and make him watch out for the immaculate white instead!
Photo sent from the Initiatives-Coeur boat during the Vendée Globe sailing race on January 8, 2025© Photo by skipper Sam Davies / Vendée Globe
“I had a black veil, sweating, nausea”Because this is their lot, as soon as their backs are turned, a new twist hits them in the corner of their noses. For Clarisse Crémer (L'Occitane en Provence, 12th), the nightmare took the form of a painful blockage, which she explained to us during the night: “At the time it was ultra violent. I had a little pain in my shoulder blade and shoulder for a few days but I didn't pay much attention to it, it was more of a nuisance. And then all of a sudden, I bent down to pick up something, and 'schla', my neck and shoulder completely blocked. And the pain was so intense that I felt unwell, I didn't lose consciousness but I was sitting and I had a black veil, sweating, nausea, I wasn't feeling well at all for several minutes! » Clarisse Crémer, L'OCCITANE en Provence. After an exchange with the race doctors and appropriate medication, the pain fortunately quickly subsided, for the sailor who already told us “I'm feeling much better, even if I had difficulty in rest for a few hours.” “But at the time it was really not practical, I had 35 knots, I was in the middle of the depression, there were horrible seas, you feel vulnerable and fragile! Already I was not in a good phase where I felt tired, where I had the impression of not navigating well, of not having the keys to what I was doing, this had added a diaper! », explained the skipper of L'Occitane en Provence, who definitely has a broad back!
Because the sailor was already handicapped, we recall, by the loss of her large gennaker at the start of the race, a blockage of one of her foils in the Indian and more recently major computer problems – “that has the seems to have been going on for a week, I'm a little afraid to talk about it because I'm afraid of attracting attention… I'm not superstitious but we quickly become so with technical problems, especially with stuff like that, if you see the inside of my computer, there are burnt bits, traces of salt, it’s nonsense…”.
But despite these little stabs in the back administered by destiny, Clarisse Crémer tries to see the glass half full, even if she admits to being “in a difficult regatta phase”, seeing Benjamin Dutreux escape under her nose (Guyot Environnement – Water Family, 11th), and come back behind his back – not too brutally, given the context – Samantha Davies (Initiatives-Cœur, 13th). Even if her West option towards the Brazilian coast, she suffered it more than chosen: “I really wanted to go to the East for a good reason: I no longer have AIS, and my VHF doesn't seem to work either, so I didn't want to go close to the coast where there are the most boats… But the door didn't open at all for me… It opened for Benj and I was a little disgusted! But I didn't have 36,000 options, it was complicated… So it's all going to come down to a little success because normally, with the routings, with Benjamin we arrive roughly on par, but you just need to have a little more slack, storms which are experienced more or less well, more or less easterly trade winds… It’s no game to take 100 miles!” Clarisse Crémer, L’OCCITANE en Provence.
Photo sent from the L'Occitane boat in Provence during the Vendée Globe sailing race on January 7, 2025© Photo by skipper Clarisse Crémer / Vendée Globe
Paul Meilhat (Biotherm, 8th) can only share this observation, he who did not go with the back of the spoon on his Eastern option, but will perhaps regret not having changed his mind . Because on the Brazilian coast, the group still led by Jérémie Beyou (Charal, 4th) has reaccelerated well, and seems well positioned to win the iodized arm wrestling:“The Eastern option is often the safest route, but it is logical that the group behind chose the coast, because when we are behind we attack, so it can happen! On the routings it's very close, they even have a small advantage I think, but the weather is still very different from the models, so it's not lost. And in any case, even if it was lost, if they passed by, nothing is over! I don't think that if they pass it's not dramatic! The important thing is to be able to play shots until the end!” Paul Meilhat, Biotherm. Because the skipper of Biotherm never has more fun than when he crosses swords! And at this level, he has been more than served since his departure from Les Sables d'Olonne, as he told us, barely realizing that he had been at sea for almost two months:“I think the pace of the race is great, I was going to the Vendée Globe for that, my goal was to fight! It's not the one for the podium unfortunately because they were very good and they sailed really well in front, but the whole group behind is playing, and that's really what I'm having fun with! And it’s not over!” Paul Meilhat, Biotherm.“I’m already happy to still be in the race…”We can certainly count on this rookie to stay behind the competition until the last miles of the race! For his part, Eric Bellion (Stand as One -ALTAVIA, 27th) would have liked to stay shoulder to shoulder with the quintet in front, and cross the majestic rock alongside them, flown over last night by drone by Conrad Colman (MS Amlin, 22nd).
Photo sent from the MS Amlin boat during the Vendée Globe sailing race on January 7, 2025© Photo by skipper Conrad Colman / Vendée Globe
But Eric Bellion's second Cape Horn will finally wait until tomorrow, because as a good sailor, he chose to turn his back. Victim of damage to his rigging – of which he is still repairing the system which allows him to hold his J2 stay – it was impossible to go to the Falklands front at the same time! A difficult choice, but one that he sums up philosophically: “It's difficult because I still had some under my feet, I knew I could go faster! But it's the Vendée Globe, I'm already happy to still be in the race… We're still on the razor's edge! When everything goes well it's extraordinary, but when something goes wrong, our physical integrity is at stake! Performance is about doing the most of what you can, and for me, performance is about repairing quickly and leaving again! It's not a mishap, it's the Vendée Globe! We all have problems, the one who makes it to the end is the one who decided that the problems were an integral part of the adventure! Even though I lost a lot of places in the rankings, the image we can give is to never give up and always move forward at all costs, solving problems as we go along. The important thing is to earn our place, to do whatever it takes to be where we are! So I am a happy man, even if I have to slow down, even if I am no longer in the battle I was in… I am moving forward!” Éric Bellion, STAND AS ONE – ALTAVIA. And even if, very often we admit it, we wonder how they are still busy in the column when they all tell us that they still have their backs full, we cannot than being impressed by the resistance of these bodies and these minds in motion, which do not deviate from their passion for competition.
With all these contortions, we haven't even talked about our head of the fleet! Above the Equator, Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance, 1st) continues to lead operations without too much friction, with more than 170 miles ahead of Yoann Richomme (PAPREC ARKÉA, 2nd) and 700 miles ahead of Sébastien Simon (Dubreuil Group, 3rd)… While Les Sables d'Olonne is getting closer and should be reached within a week, not sure that he still finds a free slot on Doctolib to make an osteo appointment!
Photo sent from the Singchain Team Haikou boat during the Vendée Globe sailing race on January 7, 2024© Photo by skipper Jingkun Xu / Vendée Globe
Weather-wise, for the skipper of L'Occitane en Provence, the atmosphere has clearly warmed up, relegating fleeces, overalls and base layers to the depths of the boat. Every day, find our race weather analysis with METEO CONSULT Marine in our special report Vendée Globe and follow the skippers live thanks to the cartography.
