Monday October 7, the winner of the last Transat Jacques-Vabre and his crew came to the aid of a boat which had been drifting for 5 days in the Strait of Gibraltar, saving sixteen men who had left Algeria. He tells “Libération” about this rescue operation, due to chance, and his anger against the other ships who did not stop.
“I’m upset.” Professional skipper Thibaut Vauchel-Camus repeats this little phrase on the phone. On Monday, he rescued a boat of migrants adrift in the Mediterranean Sea while he was ferrying his trimaran between Morocco and France after a race. The winner of the Transat Jacques-Vabre, in 2023, is angry against the situation – people who risk their lives to have a better one – and against boats at sea which do not come to the aid of humans in danger of death. “It’s driving me crazy.” He and its crew had time to chat with the sixteen Algerian men while waiting for help. A seventeenth was in the boat but did not survive. Thibaut Vauchel-Camus returns with Release on this morning.
“I have the feeling of having experienced something special. I asked myself the question: am I sharing my experience? I speak because the subject is close to my heart. I am a professional skipper. At sea, people like me take reckless risks to experience sporting and human adventures. On the other hand, there are people who risk their lives at sea to have a better one. I didn’t want it to go under the radar again.
“It all started Monday morning. I was returning from Saïdia, in Morocco, where I had just finished a race, to Sainte-Maxime (Var), to start a new one. There was very little wind. A sea of oil. We were crossing the Strait of Gibraltar, with Laurent and Paul, the two members of my crew. This place is a commercial flow, a crossroads of cargo ships which requires us to be very vigilant to avoid collisions.
“Paul sees something in the distance. He takes the binoculars: a boat adrift. Many people moving around among the cargo ships, making big hand gestures. I had seen boats drifting near the coast before but they were always empty. We deviate without hesitation. The passengers on the boat are getting restless. They scream. They’re afraid we won’t stop. The atmosphere calms down when we come within earshot. We reassure them. They are provided with water and a little food. There are sixteen on board, sixteen fairly young Algerians who hoped to go to Spain. They had been adrift for five days.
«[Petit silence]. We feel joy. They feel saved but there is a body floating in the water. There were seventeen of them at the start. He’s the little brother of a survivor. He was 22 years old. He was diabetic. He no longer had treatment or food. I understood that he had been dead for a few days. They had to put him in the water just before we arrived because the body was in a bad condition. The feeling is mixed. Ours and theirs. Joy and sorrow.
“A guy wanted to give me his compass as a souvenir”
“A competing boat, the Primonial Sailing Teamjoins us on site. We call sea rescue to transmit our position. We waited two hours for their arrival. The rage becomes even greater while waiting, seeing all the cargo ships passing near the boat. How many freighters have they encountered since they were adrift? [Il souffle.] How do you manage to do nothing when you see a boat drifting? It’s crazy. There is an obligation to help people in danger. When you’re in a car, you don’t ask yourself any questions: you stop when you’re the first to arrive at the scene of an accident. It’s the same at sea. We’re still talking about human lives.
“Diving back into this story, I tell myself that it all started on Thursday evening, when we arrived in Morocco, in Saïdia. An Italian competitor had heard a message on the radio which spoke of a boat with sixteen people adrift. We can conclude that it was a cargo ship which crossed their path and which raised the alarm without giving its position so as not to be obliged to intervene. He threw a bottle into the sea. I talk about it and it makes me feel bad. This question is close to my heart. Like other skippers like François Gabart, we support SOS Méditerranée. I organize a donation drive every year on Facebook, on my birthday, for the association. It’s not much but we do what we can on our own scale.
“We talk with the survivors while waiting for help. They thank us. They repeat: “long live France”, “long live you”, “long live humanity”. You speak. [Il souffle.] I tell myself that it was humanity that left them in this shit for five days. It’s the same one that forced them to take risks at sea. A 22-year-old kid died. It’s terrible. They offer us money to thank us. Can you imagine the thing? A guy wanted to give me his compass as a souvenir, but I refused. I regret a little. Perhaps I should have accepted this symbolic object. They noted the sponsors and the name of the boat to find us on Facebook. I can’t wait to hear from them.
“We just happened to pass by there”
“The Spanish rescue boat arrived two hours later. We stayed until the end. They got on the lifeboats, the rescuers were perfect. They did this peacefully. They recovered the body from the sea, towed the boat, and set off towards Almería. On the way back, getting back on the road, we were happy to have been able to save them, there was emotion because it could have been more tragic, but we had in mind the body that was floating. I receive a lot of messages congratulating me. Laurent and Paul too. In truth, it’s disturbing. Should we be proud to do something normal? Words are important. I insist: they are not migrants. We came to the aid of humans, survivors, shipwrecked people.
“Wednesday morning, the day I arrived in Sainte-Maxime, they talked about this story on the radio [Radio France, ndlr]. I looked at the comments on social media. Honestly, I didn’t think it could exist. It’s filthy. There is so much hatred towards people who don’t know. It’s disgusting. People who haven’t harmed anyone. A guy wrote something like this: “Mr. Vauchel-Camus the bobo, you saved those who murder our children.”I would have liked to see him in their place on a boat drifting in the middle of the sea to have a better life. He would play less smart. Brief.
“I don’t even know how to name what I experienced. How can we define this story and this meeting? I have the feeling of having encountered their adventure. In fact, I have the feeling that we were an element that changed their adventure. But basically, it’s theirs. We say to ourselves that it’s nothing, we might not have seen them if we had passed by at night, or if the wind had pushed us in another direction. We just happened to pass by there.”
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