After two and a half months of relentless navigation, they reach a level of exhaustion beyond imaginable, so much so that a new word would be necessary to describe this unique state. Between endurance, resilience and creativity, they demonstrate that at sea, it takes much more than just hours of sleep to hold the helm.
Tired, exhausted, exhausted, exhausted, knocked out, at the end of their rope… or even washed out and washed out, which in this case seems a little less appropriate when talking about our funny birds! If there are so many adjectives in the French language to describe being tired, it is because there are different degrees of intensity… But which one would be enough to describe that of the Vendée Globe sailors? Two and a half months of combat, with a minimum of snoozing and a maximum of pressure, we inevitably wonder how the body and mind react to this very strange cocktail.
So we asked them the question, and it was Romain Attanasio (Fortinet – Best Western, 14th) who, finally coming out of his slightly too prolonged half-board stay in the Doldrums, was the first to come up with: “ I didn't have any hallucinations… Well, last time, I was dozing and I had to go and unwind the mainsail, and I had the impression that my friend Nico was on board with me, so I asked him to shock, but that's all, nothing crazy, I don't see any pink elephants, but fatigue can lead to stupid things, at least! good decisions, less good maneuvers, that's what fatigue creates, that's what we have to be careful about…”
“Before, I was hitting outside and breaking things! »Beware of everything, including yourself. Because experience necessarily pushes you to your limits, especially when it is felt nervously. “It's so intense to always have this pressure of speed, of going to the right place, of not breaking, of repairing, of not hitting something. I find this constant anxiety to be difficult to live with! », confirmed the sailor who is competing in his third Vendée Globe, and has just had a bad time in the intertropical convergence zone, which swelled at the same time as he tried to cross it. Enough to further increase this mental exhaustion! The “Romain Attanasio” method to try to evacuate it?
“Maybe my voice is broken because I spent so much time outside screaming! And then before, I was kicking outside and breaking things! So now I've gotten the hang of it, I'm taking bottles of 'empty water and I smash them 100 times on a winch, it doesn't damage anything and it relaxes me! In those moments, you say to yourself what are you doing here!“There I see Cape Horn, I want to cry”If there is one who, last night, would not have snapped his fingers and did not have to get angry with a plastic subterfuge, it is Manuel Cousin (Coup de Pouce, 31st), who crossed Cape Horn in dream conditions and with perfect visibility. One of those suspended, unique moments, and above all capable of making us forget all the fatigue of the world: “We feel a lot of joy, relief, pride, an accomplishment, the exit door from the South Seas. For me it was was very long this time I went into it with a state of mind that was not at its best, because following my shock I was not very well psychologically, I went there on the spot. tip toe and it was very complicated at the beginning, and then little by little it got better and better, and there I go out, the weather is magnificent, I see Cape Horn In 2020, I hadn't seen it, so very very happy. “Very positive emotions, I couldn't dream of anything better! “That's how in one second, two and a half months of effort can suddenly be justified. That doesn't stop him from also feeling tired, the Vendée skipper who this week managed to leave his traveling companion, Fabrice Amedeo (Nexans – Wewise, 33rd), behind. But, “there must be some advantages to having white hair” he tells us, it's been a long time since he set foot in this famous “red zone”, the one we need avoid at all costs to maintain lucidity: “I have no hallucinations, I know myself well, I have been sailing for a long time, I know that I have points that tell me when I am tired: drops in moral in particular, I know that it is necessary that I go to rest for 1 hour, 2 hours, and it starts again. We're talking about the emotional elevator, that's really what fatigue is like. There I see Cape Horn, I want to cry, two seconds later. I'm going to laugh out loud one morning we're going to get up with a great catch and the desire to tear it all off, and then an hour later we're feeling down because we took a weather file that we didn't like… ““I’m not 100% confident that it will work”And yes, if the body wears out, it is ultimately the mind which twists the most in such extreme conditions which drag on forever. It is not for nothing that offshore racing is an eminently psychological sport, which requires as much mental as physical preparation! And although coaches may advocate the art of “stable morale”, that which consists of forbidding oneself from too great joys to avoid the risk of too great sorrows, it is in practice always as complex to apply, especially when the technical tiles fall on board.
Deprived of a mainsail for almost 48 hours, Sam Goodchild (VULNERABLE, 7th) hopes to see the end of his struggle in the early morning. Yesterday, he spent his day working on deck to repair this 160 square meter piece of fabric:
We're at the stage where I'm out of glue! I had 14 cartridges, and I don't have any more! We worked with the shore team and North Sails to maximize the chances of success. Here I just stuck the last patch an hour ago, all that remains is to attach a batten which is a little floating at the breakage, all the others are repaired, and then after attaching the mainsail to the mast, the 'send it and try it… Fingers crossed, it wasn't the ideal conditions because we had a lot of waves on deck, it was very wet and it's not the easiest to stick. I'm not 100% calm that it works but 100% calm that we did our best. Review in the morning!
-A commando operation all the more crucial as the weather over the next few days is not really helpful for the British sailor, who was fighting at the time of his tear with Jérémie Beyou (Charal, 4th). From now on, the objective is only to return safely to port, and this is no easy task with this northerly wind which will gradually return, and force the skipper of VULNERABLE to get closer to the Portuguese coast.
“It's difficult to do a routing, I don't even know if I can go upwind without a mainsail, so I try not to plan too much,” he explained to us during the night. My goal is to arrive at Cape Finisterre, then I will need my mainsail less, but it won't be a relief either because there will be 40 knots, but it will be a little less stress I hope ! »
So there he is with this big question mark above his head, and in the process a bunch of unanswered questions… “If I'm not here within a week, I risk running out of food and diesel, but I have hope… It will last! », he told us, always trying to “avoid the red zone and stay in the green”.
After two and a half months, this theoretical line no longer holds much ground! There are shots of adrenaline that push us, and then make us fall even harder. Yesterday for example, when the mainsail was lowered, I collapsed, I went to sleep for an hour and a half, my body gave out. Today I had a little shot of adrenaline to get me back on track, and now I've got a boost again.
Here it is finally, the most appropriate expression for our sailors obliged to a thousand turns and reversals of body and mind. Like the wind or the sea, fatigue is a parameter that they should be able to enter into their routing, and that they need to master whatever happens, as much as the rest, to complete their odyssey. With or without his friend Nico on board.
Find our daily weather analysis of the race with METEO CONSULT Marine in our special Vendée Globe report.
