Landéda (France) (AFP)

"Boat under pilot, it sends pâté !!!": Gildas Morvan, the sailor, and Christophe Miossec, the artist, believe themselves off the islands of Cape Verde. Aboard their imaginary sailboat, associated in an improbable tandem, they head to Saint-Barthélémy for a virtual race, the Transat AG2R.

They left Brittany. Finally in a dream. Each confined to their house near Landéda (Finistère), the two friends from Brest left virtually from Concarneau on a Sunday afternoon in their black and white monohull with the inscription "Breizh" on the sail.

Gildas Morvan, skipper with a rich track record who has already won the 'real' edition of the Transat AG2R La Mondiale in 2012, has chosen to spend his confinement time in particular having fun with Miossec via Virtual Regatta. The online video game offers an edition of the Transat AG2R la Mondiale, a double-yearly offshore race connecting Concarneau (Finistère) to the Caribbean island of Saint-Barthélémy, canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The organizers were looking for improbable duets", tells AFP Gildas Morvan. "I remembered that I had a friend who loves to sail, who often comes on my boat, it's Christophe Miossec. Me the sailor, he the musician, and share our adventure, tell stories to make people dream ".

- Panic on board -

Miossec did not hesitate to embark on the boat, baptized by Morvan 'Les Rescapés', title of the singer's last album.

"It's funny to have virtually embarked on this adventure, to know that we are on a small point on a map south of the Azores, it's funny. With days in time of confinement, these times worrying, d 'having that come into play is good,' says Miossec.

The two friends are having a great time, as if they were there.

"I really make it seem like I'm on board and I'm sailing, Christophe is helming a lot," explains Morvan, who recounts their epic on social networks and posted a photo of the duo at sea (taken before confinement).

It was very bad for him!

"There was panic on board! People did not understand that it was for bluff," says Morvan, who animates their crossing in a permanent exchange with Miossec.

Morvan is the strategist and Miossec "a good little foam" says the artist himself, who "always soaked in water". His father was a professional scuba diver, but his thing is more like sea kayaking than ocean racing.

- "Miossec wants to beat Birkin!"

As for online games, Miossec is not a novice. He is a regular in backgammon.

"I play with people from all over the world, at times I feel like I am in Istanbul when I see that it is a Turk in front of me. We project ourselves," says Miossec.

On this virtual deckchair (which has some 72,000 registrants), he got all the more excited that one of his rivals is a friend, the singer Jane Birkin, also on board an improbable duo with the sailor - and his neighbor at the Abber Wrac'h - Jacques Caraës.

"Miossec wants to beat Jane Birkin!" Reports Morvan. "They are in a fight. They both died laughing. Jacques (Caraës) tells me that Jane keeps asking for the rankings too."

The outcome between these two pairs will be played on Monday, the estimated day of arrival in Saint-Barthélémy.

"I've never been there, there is something that touches me with 'St Barth', that's where Johnny Hallyday is buried. Symbolically it's a funny thing too. If we go there , we're going to go to his grave. It's a funny thing, "said Miossec, who has written several songs for Hallyday.

Then, he will leave this virtual world to "have a big meal of oysters" with Morvan and the others. From the time of deconfinement came.

© 2020 AFP