At sea (AFP)

Spinning at speeds that can approach 90 km / h, the crew of the giant flying boat Maxi Edmond de Rothschild experiences a "life in fast motion", says one of the crew, Morgan Lagravière, in a notebook. board for AFP during the Jules Verne Trophy.

The 32-meter-long multihull left on January 10 with six sailors on board - including Morgan Lagravière, coxswain / trimmer - to try to beat the crewed round-the-world record, i.e. 40 days and 23 hours.

The crew passed Ecuador on Friday with an advance of almost six hours over the keeper (Idec Sport in January 2017), i.e. 5 days and 13 hours.

"It's been just a week since we left Lorient, our families, our friends, the Gitana team! In terms of weather conditions, we were spoiled with a great sun. It allowed us to move away more serenely, I Departures, and especially for a round-the-world trip, are always quite special moments in the lives of sailors. We leave our environment as a landowner, as a family to find a completely different living environment; , in a boat that goes day and night.

Since our departure in the middle of the dark night in Ouessant, we have all found our rhythm, taken our marks.

Everything is going rather well and we are lucky to once again benefit from good conditions to navigate from the exit of the Doldrums.

What is very striking about a fast boat like the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild is that we live very fast, starting with the weather.

We live all the seasons very closely.

I had already experienced it a bit in Imoca (Vendée Globe boats, Editor's note), which is also a category that goes fast, but here it is two to three times faster!

Temperatures vary a lot each day.

We went from very cold to very hot and there, along Brazil, we come back to things a little more temperate.

But on board we are currently enjoying these beautiful warm days because we know that the change to the cold will be brutal within 48 to 72 hours.

Fleeces and duvets will be out again and welcome.

Off Cape Verde we hit a fish in the central rudder while we were sailing at more than 30 knots.

It turned out not to be serious because the equipment held the shock but I was at the helm and it immediately reminded me of our first attempt and what led us to turn around.

We can see that what we are experiencing on this Jules Verne Trophy can stop very quickly, in a fraction of a second and on things that we unfortunately do not master.

It is all the more important to take advantage of each passing day and of what we are experiencing because it is exceptional!

The boat is incredible and the conditions we encounter allow it to express itself completely.

It is such a chance to be here with this crew.

I measure and I take full advantage ".

Interview by Sabine COLPART

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