Paris (AFP)

On board her old boat, the Englishwoman Pip Hare won hearts, even beyond the sailing world, and won the respect of great French sailors, by completing the Vendée Globe after three tough months.

"Respect": It is on this song by Aretha Franklin that Pip Hare (Medallia) has chosen to celebrate his arrival in the port of Les Sables d'Olonne, at 3:30 am Friday morning.

A freezing rain, a very dark night but a moving welcome.

Jean Le Cam - 4th in his fifth Vendée Globe - came to welcome the English sailor, whom he finds "radiant", "amazing", "a character".

Her blonde braids overflowing from her cap, her clear and shining gaze, Pip Hare smiles, again and again, after 95 days alone at sea, which exhausted but delighted her.

She accomplished what she has worked tirelessly for eleven years, with no one to guide her, investing everything she had in her project.

Born in London 47 years ago, Pip Hare grew up near Cambridge, inland, with her little brother and two older sisters.

But her parents - Mary, a physiotherapist, and John, a doctor - then newlyweds, had bought a small boat even before having a house, tells AFP Mary.

- Freedom -

The family was crossing the North Sea to reach the Netherlands on summer vacation.

“I think I fell in love with sailing when I was a teenager and started sailing all day with other kids, without my parents. I loved that freedom. When you're a teenager, you want to make your decisions on your own but there are few things you can afford it except when you go sailing. I think that's why I loved sailing even more, "Pip told AFP Hare.

With a degree in languages ​​(French, English, Spanish), she takes off after reading an article on the Vendée Globe in a magazine.

“Going around the world solo nonstop felt like the hardest thing to do in a lifetime. And there were women doing this race, not just men. Exactly the same way, in equal respect. and that definitely convinced me: that's what I really wanted to do, "she recalls.

"It was very difficult for me, because there was no clear path to the Vendée Globe, it's not like in France, where you know which way to take to get there, so it made me feel really took a long time, ”says the sailor.

- Passionate -

Humble, simple, this opera enthusiast hangs on.

"There are so many times when you falter, you don't believe in yourself, you miss an opportunity. And you have only you to remember that if, you have to hang on because that's what you want. do it then you are going to do it. Sometimes it's as if your feet were stuck in the glue ", explains the skipper.

In 2009, she signed her first transatlantic.

In 2011, she participated in the Mini-Transat (she finished 41st then 28th in 2013).

And then she buys this old boat built in 1999 by the navigator Bernard Stamm.

With helpers and a last-minute sponsor (Medallia), she took the start of the Vendée Globe on November 8, along with 32 other yachts.

At the back of the fleet, she moves slowly, climbs the mast in the open sea, repairs her rudder in the water in difficult conditions and yet keeps repeating that she is so lucky to be there.

She goes up the fleet at speeds unimaginable for her heavy machine.

She finished nineteenth.

New Zealand actor Russell Crowe and British sailor Ellen MacArthur texted him, while four-time Olympic sailing champion Sir Ben Ainslie expressed his admiration: "What you're doing is awesome. We're following you. all of us and we are all fully behind you ".

In 2024, we promise, she will be back.

© 2021 AFP