Caudrelier delivered the first part of this logbook, revisiting the "fear of his life" when the boat grazed a cargo ship, and this desire to "travel" differently when he spoke on the radio with a little girl who was sailing with his parents aboard a sailboat for a year at sea.

The tandem, at the helm of a 32-meter maxi-trimaran, was in the lead on Sunday morning in the Transat Jacques Vabre, and was heading towards the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.

"When we go to sea, offshore, we know that there will be many encounters. There are those that we would prefer to avoid and those that we do not even expect but which are good.

Last Tuesday evening, it was a meeting of the first kind ... With Franck we had the fear of our lives, even if everything went so quickly that you didn't have time to be afraid. .

It's after thinking about the scene that it freezes your blood.

The Cape Finisterre area is like the Ouessant Railroad.

It's super busy.

Between freighters, container ships, fishermen ... There are a lot of people and you just have to see all the AIS (Automatic Identification System / system which automatically detects the presence of other ships, Editor's note) which emit to understand that the day before is not an option.

Already last year on one of our attempts at the Jules Verne Trophy (crewed round-the-world record), we had to slalom in the middle of the huge steel units.

But it was daytime and we were crewed.

Tuesday, it was pitch black, with Franck we were preparing a jibe (change direction with a tailwind, Editor's note) in a sustained wind.

The freighter did not see us and we did not hear our alarms.

Franck pushed the bar hard to jibe.

The freighter brushed past us, it passed 30 meters from us, less than the length of the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild ... We found ourselves alongside it.

It is in these moments that you feel very small ...

After this great fright, we had another meeting, but of a completely different kind.

A moment of relaxation for the skippers Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier on the Edmond de Rothschild sailboat between Lorient and Le Havre, on October 27, 2021, a few days before the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS AFP / Archives

Between the Canaries and Cape Verde we passed a sailboat which called us by VHF (radio waves, Editor's note).

On board, there was a little girl with her parents. They had left France in mid-July for a sabbatical at sea. She was very funny, very curious, she asked us a lot of questions. I think she must have been 10, 12 years old but very mature. She was fascinated by our speed because they had left the Canaries for Cape Verde for a week and we had been there 24 hours before. But they were happy to take their time. These are trips that make me dream… Trips like that with the family, few people have the courage to do it. It was not always possible to do it, but it also takes courage. You have to start, quit everything. This little girl, she made me think of my children and these are things that we want to tell them: the trip of this little girl.

We are in the competition!

We are trying to make the fastest boats in the world to go as quickly as possible on the water.

Staying there for the shortest time is our goal.

They are there to enjoy the sea, the adventure and the journey ".

Interview by Sabine COLPART

© 2021 AFP