It is a perilous sector in the middle of the Atlantic that most of the sailors taking part in the race must cross on Tuesday or Wednesday. A stage that annoys as much as it fascinates.
Published on 19/11/2024 15:00
Reading time: 2min
This will be the first symbolic moment of the Vendée Globe, leaving Sunday November 10 from Sables-d’Olonne: the famous doldrums so feared by sailors. The front of the fleet of this world tour should reach in the coming hours this vast area around the equator in the middle of the Atlantic: an area renowned for its capricious weather, between lack of winds and violent storms, not always funny, as some of the competitors currently at sea tell us.
The doldrums: a mysterious name for a hell of a puzzle. Jérémie Beyou has gone through it a bunch of times, like in 2016. Enough to lose patience. “It’s annoying, we are completely helpless,” he whispers.
In this equatorial zone where the northern trade winds meet those from the south, violent squalls alternate with total calm, no wind, stranded boats. Not always a good memory for Nicolas Lunven. “In 2014, in the Volvo Ocean Race, we spent three or four days in complete chaos. It was a mirror, there was nothing at all.”
But the doldrums fascinate those who encounter it, like Benjamin Ferré. “There is a quote from Gandhi written on my boat, which says: ‘Petroleum is cool’. Looking forward to discovering the doldrums because I have never crossed the equator in my life. It’s going to be something, the desire not to get caught out there.”
At these latitudes, the heat can also be stifling. Nicolas Lunven found the solution. “My team installed small fans for me, he says. One above the card table and I have the little draft that reaches my neck, it’s perfect, and another above where I sleep, so as not to have too hot and won’t stick to my mattress.” Once this zone is crossed, it is the southern hemisphere, and there begins another story.
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