Skipper Romain Attanasio celebrates Christmas alone on his boat, in the middle of the Vendée Globe. That won't stop him from opening his presents like everyone else and eating foie gras… while keeping an eye on the weather and the navigation!
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In the middle of the Vendée Globe, skipper Romain Attanasio is spending the Christmas holidays alone at sea, off the coast of New Zealand. “It’s a bit specialhe says in a video call. It's windy, so it's good because I've had a few difficult days this week, so things are progressing, we're off to a good start again!”.
He emphasizes that the end-of-year holiday season is quite difficult. This is where the loneliness is felt the most, especially when he receives messages from his children opening their presents: “I say to myself, well, we're a bit alone eating our foie gras on [une biscotte]it's less funky”.
Romain Attanasio has not planned anything special, especially since the day before, he found himself lost in the hours. “We're a day ahead, but we're going to catch up. We've experienced the same day twice, passing the antimeridian, so I would say it's a little disturbing”admet le skipper.
In addition to the 12 hour time difference “and with this extra day, I didn't really know when Christmas was anymore. Yesterday, I said to myself: Christmas is today, so I did it in several batches.” He still decorated the boat, “Santa came for a visit and I thought I'd make a little nicer meal this evening and open all the presents I have”. Romain Attanasio shows a box containing several gifts that he was not allowed to open until now.
The fact remains that he has difficulty situating himself in time. “When we go down the Atlantic, we follow our time zone a little, the hours don't pass too much but once we attack the Cape of Good Hope, the hours shift quite quickly and after a while, We don't really know anymore.”. He and his competitors end up following solar time: “as soon as the day dawns, we say to ourselves that's it, it's breakfast, and when it sets, we say to ourselves that it's time for dinner”.
As for the rest of his adventures, Romain Attanasio announces that he should reach Cape Horn in eight days. “There is a jibe to do tomorrow morning, then there are two big gusts of wind to go through, they are quite strong”he explains. The first is halfway and the second “will welcome us at Cape Horn, he is quite strong too”.
Until then, the weather may change. “I hope that will change, but it’s true that to this day, the road to Cape Horn is still paved with two strong gusts of wind that are a little difficult to manage”he concludes.
