The great albatrosses are happy. After four years of always seeing the same faces, Adélie penguins here, Kerguelen petrels there, here is a much more unique attraction again: the thirty Vendée Globe boats, which face the South Seas after having passed the Cape of Good Hope. The leader of the race, like Charlie Dalin or Sébastien Simon, is already in the thick of it, while the rest of the fleet is preparing to enter this “different world”, as Paul Meilhat explained to us. (Biotherm), ninth in the race.
A different world from what the skippers have found since their departure from Les Sables-d'Olonne on November 10. Ideal sailing conditions, cruising speed, sunshine, no major pitfalls, no damage, except for Maxime Sorel and Louis Burton. In short, very peaceful, like a regatta. “How calm is it?”, retorts the last winner of the Vendée Globe Yannick Bestaven (Master Rooster8th). We broke all records. We did more than five days at an average of 25 knots for the foilers, these are not calm conditions. »
“A hard blow is brewing behind”
But nothing compares to what they will face in the South Seas, starting with a small storm which will fall on them on Wednesday or Thursday. On the program: 35 knots of wind (65 km/h), gusts of more than 50 knots (92 km/h), waves ten meters high… Scary. “The South Seas are really quite big swells, with depressions that you have to try to see coming from afar so as not to find yourself in dangerous situations,” notes Clarisse Crémer (L’Occitane in Provence), which will arrive in the bazaar in the coming hours.
« The hardest thing to manage is the duration. You can find yourself for 4-5 days in the wind, with swell, a little cooped up, cloistered in your boat, waiting for it to pass, continues the skipper. The moments of respite are quite few, because there is immediate worry. When there is a moment of respite, there is inevitably a hard blow brewing behind it, with once again complicated weather. »
The weather, in fact, is much more difficult to analyze at the bottom of the globe. The forecasts are random, the changes regular and therefore the maneuvers much more numerous. As evidenced by those of Yoann Richomme, who is fighting in the leading trio, heading due north towards Madagascar. “We're going to have a hell of a time,” he explains in a press release. In the center of the depression, there is 60 knots of wind, which we will avoid looking for. From the North, it allows me to have an escape route in the event of a problem, to head into calmer waters without being trapped by the ice zone. »
Do not make an Escoffier bis
The goal of all these beautiful people is obviously to avoid breakage and damage, like that experienced by Kévin Escoffier four years ago, southwest of the Cape of Good Hope. Because of a leak, he had to leave his boat, and he was finally rescued by Jean Le Cam, after several nightmarish days. Because the arrival in the South Seas also marks the distance from all forms of human life and therefore from potential rescue teams.
“There is a little apprehension when we are there,” assures Paul Meilhat. We know that we can only count on ourselves and possibly on our adversaries. This is my third Indian Ocean, I feel like I'm managing it better, anticipating better and the boat is better prepared for bad weather. That's what's also interesting, it's flirting with limits, and knowing what you can tolerate. »
Isabelle Joschke (MACSF), during his previous participation in the Vendée Globe had sworn not to set foot or a boat in these terrible South Seas again, after a not-so-pleasant experience. She obviously didn't keep her promise and will go back in a few days. With quite a bit of apprehension. “I feel that there is something in me that must reconfigure itself to prepare for weeks that are not necessarily going to be easy and which, in any case, are not going to be comfortable. I'm trying to leave behind all the old, bad memories and also open myself up to something new. It's a bit of a struggle inside. »
A “big fracture” can be created
Can all this environment allow us to see the start of a new race? “It’s a second stage, not a new race, because there are already established positions,” assures Bestaven, quite happy to be in the South Seas. It's another way to navigate. » Like the Trouée d'Arenberg on Paris-Roubaix, you don't win the Vendée Globe in the South Seas, but you can lose it.
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“Managing this depression that will hit them is sure to be important,” says Hubert Lemmonier, the race director. It can create a big divide, but I don't think it really puts anyone out of harm's way. I think we will even have to wait for the Pacific and perhaps Cape Horn to get a good idea and make an initial assessment. » We already know that the albatrosses, vast birds of the seas, which follow, indolent traveling companions, the ship gliding over the bitter abyss, will cry.