“It feels good to finally be at sea after three crazy weeks in Les Sables d’Olonne,” confides Samantha Davies, Sunday November 10, on franceinfo. At 50, the British skipper of Initiatives-Cœur is participating in her fourth Vendée Globe. She returns to the departure “Magnificent” et “a little frustrating”, given this Sunday at 1:02 p.m., when the public was there, but not the wind.
franceinfo: How did this very special departure go for you, with a lot of people, but very little wind?
Samantha Davies : It was magnificent. As the sea was beautiful, there were a lot of people who were able to go out with lots of boats. But yes, no wind. It was a little frustrating for us to actually be stopped. Just after the start, we were no longer moving forward at all. But at the same time, it allowed people to see us longer. Now our IMOCAs are moving really fast, so sometimes, when we start, it's hard to keep up with us. But that wasn't the case at all, so we were able to enjoy having people around us all afternoon. Like every start of a world tour, there are a lot of emotions. Lots of excitement, a little bit of anxiety. It's quite a difficult day, but it made some great memories and a lot of positive energy from the crowd, it was really nice and I'll save that for the future.
The wind will gradually strengthen, what do you expect in the next few hours?
It has already strengthened, currently I am at sixteen knots with thirteen knots of wind. There are boats on either side and stars. So it was rather a very pleasant night, after a rather complicated afternoon: since the wind was very weak, we had to zigzag because Cape Finistère was right on the axis of the wind. We had to take some tacks and have a bit of strategy. I'm not sure I did everything super well, but that's okay, there's still a long way to go.
How will this first night go, we know that sleep is an essential factor in a race like this?
Sleep is difficult, yes. There it's going to be a little complicated because, as I said, there are boats all around, there are 40 boats and we're still quite close, so it's going to be mini-naps this night so as not to take any risk of collision and also because it is necessary to maneuver. You have to gybe, find the optimal route to Cape Finisterre. So a lot of maneuvering, not a lot of sleep, but the road is long and I think that in the days to come, I will be able to make up for this night with lots of naps.
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