Vianney spent sixteen hours in the icy waters of the English Channel, after an outing with his windsurfing board, Sunday December 22. Caught in a storm, he had a nightmarish start to the night. He recounted his ordeal to RTL: “I jumped on one of the waves and got a gust at the same time. The sail was cut in two. At the beginning, in my head, there was no problem, because I was in a bay, there was no problem. So emergency services were called.”
He explained that he had seen them, without them noticing him. “I was really starting to move away from the sea. It was from the moment I moved away from the sea that I started to go into big hollows where there was really a three-metre swell. From 11 p.m., I went into mode survival,” he continued.
And added: “I have a memory lapse from about 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. I saw boats, I tried to swim towards the boats. I saw the coast, I tried to swim towards the coast, whether it is to have this objective of going towards something or the objective simply to warm up. There was no question of dying. I was out of the question of dying for my family, for my friends.”
Vianney was finally recovered off the coast of Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue : “I could hear the helicopter going back and forth trying to look for me. They went down to the water, they harnessed me, they put me back in the helicopter. And then, it 'is deliverance. They ask me if everything is okay. My first instinct is to say 'everything is okay, I'm just thirsty and hungry.' On principle, he was taken to the hospital, but he is fine. This week he even went to see those who helped him to thank them.
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