At sea (AFP)

The skipper Sébastien Simon (Arkéa Paprec), who is taking part in his first Vendée Globe on a brand new boat, said he was "rather happy" but did not hide being "hyper stressed" by the harsh conditions, even emphasizing that he had not measured "the magnitude of this adventure".

"The moments of the departure were still very emotional ... I sometimes cry in the boat, because I miss my loved ones, clearly. I think that I had not realized the full extent of this adventure ", says Sébastien Simon, joined Thursday evening by AFP when he is not far from the Azores.

"There are times that are harder than others but I'm pretty happy, I'm making my life on board, I don't see the time passing for the moment. I always have something to do, maneuvers to do , it's rather pleasant ", continues the sailor, 14th in the classification of 10 pm Thursday.

Having left Sables d'Olonne on Sunday with 32 other competitors, Simon, 30, is at the helm of a latest generation sailboat, known as + flying +, that is to say which can sail at high speed above the water thanks to foils (lateral appendages).

On Tuesday, like the rest of the fleet, it had to face a particularly violent front and is once again preparing to weather a tropical storm, Theta, on Friday.

"It's super stressful, we always have a deadline that hangs in our face with heavy weather. We have the same thing on Friday, we wait for it, we think about it all the time, we look at each weather file how spend it as well as possible. It's not a very pleasant time, I hope the conditions for the rest of the world tour will be nicer, "he notes.

Simon, who had some setbacks with his boat in the weeks leading up to the start of the Vendée Globe, was very touched by the hard blow experienced by another competitor, Jérémie Beyou (Charal), forced to turn around Wednesday after having suffered several damages.

"I'm disgusted for 'Jerem', for me he was one of the big favorites, he clearly deserved to win. Frankly, he's unlucky. It's those moments that we put a bit into perspective. In my misfortune I'm not that badly served, I'll be content, now it's my turn to play, "he said.

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