AAt the end of the phone, Violette Dorange confesses ” light “ lack of sleep due to the heat, but the sailor's morale is high, and she holds the helm Becomeits 18 meter monohull with straight fins.
“It must be close to 30 degrees in the boat, every time I move, I'm dripping, but I take care of myself: I showered, I eat well and since the start [des Sables-d’Olonne, le 10 novembre] I have already read two books: Pride and Prejudice [de Jane Austen] and Based on a true story [de Delphine de Vigan] »says the 23-year-old young woman, who is competing in her first Vendée Globe.
This first solo world tour, non-stop and without assistance, which, since the abandonment due to injury and damage of Maxime Sorel (V and B-Monbana-Mayenne), on November 15, there are only 39 competitors left, including 6 women, she saw it “a bit like an escape game”.
“I really take it step by step by checking the boxesshe explains. The first was Cape Finisterre [Espagne]the second, the doldrums [zone de convergence intertropicale]now I am at the equator and then it will be the left turn towards the capes [Bonne-Espérance, Afrique du Sud], Lioness [Australie] et Horn [Chili]which mark the 45,000 kilometers of the route] ».
A sip of champagne
Saturday November 23, when the screen of her on-board computer displayed the latitude of zero degrees, Violette did not deviate from maritime tradition. As a symbolic offering to Neptune, as is customary each time she crosses the equator, she drank a sip of champagne before sprinkling a little on her boat and pouring the rest into the waves. To attract the good graces of the master of the oceans as much as to celebrate the start of his new life “head upside down”.
For the first time in her young career, the intrepid skipper with the fluty voice is heading to the Southern Hemisphere. She will now have to deal with depressions and anticyclones rotating in the opposite direction to that to which the transatlantic races have accustomed her. “It adds spice to my race, it’s great to break away from the usual patterns! »she rejoices.
So far the novelty has been quite successful for him. Like in the doldrums, where the meeting of the southern trade winds with those from the north creates, every time, a joyful upheaval. She went there “more than thirty hours”.
“I was both excited and a little scaredshe says. I entered there escorted by an immense and extremely dark cloud, but gradually, I understood that the large grains of the doldrums mainly bring calm [calme plat], and I didn't do badly, because I moved up three or four places in the rankings. »
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