Let’s be completely honest: the night wasn’t really any different from the previous fifty-one nights. The proof is that some of our sailors learned through our nightly questions that it was time to set sail for a new year! It must be said that in their salty daily life, with the moving immensity as their only horizon, connected to the adrenaline of racing in perfusion, it is difficult to keep count of the days (what do you mean, it’s not possible to engrave small lines in the carbon partition?)
But all the same, let’s bet that on the scale of their lives, this will not be one that we forget. “What did we do in 2024 darling, were we at the Duponts or at home? » Oh no, we escaped at the head of the Vendée Globe, we struggled off the coast of Argentina, we passed Cape Horn at the speed of a sloth in full digestion, we struggled in a final, not so peaceful front, we tinkered , we gybed, we cursed, we rejoiced, we cried, we laughed, we were amazed, we fought… We would remember.
Charlie varie
Do the first hours of a new year give us a taste of everything it has in store for us? In this case, Charlie Dalin (MACIF Santé Prévoyance) can only have his mouth watering, because what he had hoped for so much has happened. Finally, the return of a well-established wind, from which he benefited first while his runner-up Yoann Richomme (PAPREC-ARKÉA, 2nd) continued to zigzag like seismic surveys. Enough to steal a few precious miles, while in the early morning, the two furious people had finally set off again at full speed towards the house… we will wait until the pontoon for the champagne and the party favors!
Deliverance still seems far from the next group, which is progressing painfully along this immense Argentina, upwind. The night’s menu was enough to turn your stomach, as Jérémie Beyou (Charal, 7th) explained to us:
