A young windsurfer disappeared at sea on December 22, then was found safe the next day off Grandcamp-Maisy. He bears witness for the first time to his nearly 16-hour journey adrift.
More than 16 hours on a 1.50m windsurf board, drifting in the Bay of Seine. Vianney, 27, recounts his journey for the first time. He is “still in shock”, he admits to France 3 Normandie.
Sunday December 22, the young man took to the water to windsurf, near Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue (Manche). But because of the current and the wind, he finds himself drifting. Not seeing him return, his parents reported his disappearance. “I saw them looking for me, but with the 3 meter waves, they didn’t see me,” remembers the windsurfer, speaking to Ouest-France.
“A seven-hour memory lapse”
He is moving further and further away, the waves are high and he is wearing a black wetsuit that is difficult to spot. That’s when the ordeal begins. “I put myself in survival mode when I saw that I couldn’t be found!”, he tells our colleagues. The sea water is around 9°C, so he goes into the water “from time to time” and puts his “fingers in his mouth” to warm up.
It drifts all night from Sunday to Monday, with wind gusts of more than 100 km/h. “I don’t remember my whole night. I had a memory lapse of around seven hours,” he explains to France 3 Normandie.
Despite the difficult conditions, Vianney never gave up. “I kept hope from A to Z. I didn’t think about death at all, it wasn’t an option,” he told the local channel.
“Happy to be alive”
A glimmer of hope that was worth it. The young windsurfer was rescued on the morning of Monday December 23 by an H160 helicopter from the French Navy off the coast of Grandcamp-Maisy. He was then evacuated by ambulance to the Cotentin Public Hospital Center (CHPC), according to a press release from the Manche and North Sea prefecture.
“I saw the helicopter crisscrossing the area, in the distance. I hoped that they had spotted me and that was indeed the case. When they arrived, it was deliverance,” recalls Vianney, to France 3. He says he is “happy to be alive and to have found his family.”
A few days later, Thursday December 26, the young man visited the rescuers who saved his life to thank them.
But he still has regrets. “I blame myself for having taken them out before Christmas when many were with their families. In hindsight, I should not have gone out to sea that afternoon!”, he concludes.
