Paris (AFP)
The French skipper Kevin Escoffier (PRB), who had to abandon the Vendée Globe due to a major water leak in his boat and who had been rescued by Jean Le Cam (Yes We Cam!), Was recovered by the French Navy, his team announced Sunday morning.
The transfer operation of Kevin Escoffier from "Yes We Cam" to the French Navy frigate Nivôse, carried out on the night of Saturday to Sunday, is "successful", welcomed PRB in a statement.
"The PRB skipper first jumped into the water before being picked up aboard a French Navy semi-rigid (...) then was greeted by the Nivôse crew", specifies the Escoffier team.
"Kevin is heading for gravel while Jean Le Cam can resume his solo route for this Vendée Globe," added the press release.
In a stormy sea off the Cape of Good Hope, Escoffier had to abandon his boat, victim of a major waterway, to board his life raft, before being recovered safe and sound, after eleven hours. 'waiting, by Jean Le Cam during the night from Monday to Tuesday.
Since Saturday, Jean Le Cam and Kevin Escoffier have been in "direct contact with Captain Frédéric Barbe and Lieutenant Jérémie Lefebvre to refine a meeting point in the middle of the Indian Ocean and recover the PRB skipper" , tells the team of the rescued skipper.
The approach of the frigate and of "Yes We Cam" was very complicated during the day on Saturday, then at night due to the extreme weather conditions in the area: "the Nivôse was sailing at the end of the afternoon yesterday (Saturday , editor's note) in heavy seas and 40 knots of wind, ”says PRB.
It was finally in the north of Île aux Cochons and Île de la Possession, at 40 ° 15 South, 52 ° 20 ° East, that the two boats were able to transfer the skipper.
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