Faced with confinement, Sébastien Destremau advises to "speak alone"

• Sébastien Destremau spent 124 days alone on his boat during the 2016-17 Vendée Globe.
• Do not hesitate to speak alone and know how to take advantage of moments of boredom: these are the two main tips of the Var sailor.

He finished last in the 2016-17 Vendée Globe. It is third on the “ 20 Minutes podium of experts who give you advice on how to manage their containment”. After Thomas Pesquet (six months in a space can), after Jean-Jacques Savin (127 days at sea in a barrel), we are offering you this Wednesday the tips from the Var navigator Sébastien Destremau.

Three years ago, he completed the Vendée Globe in 124 days, after having experienced some galleys. And a few follies: the skipper had composed an improbable song, made a key to the oceans and tried to fish for food. His preparation for the "Vendée" 2020 being seriously disrupted, Sébastien Destremau is currently guarding the children of nurses requisitioned because of the coronavirus pandemic. And answers our questions.

Is the situation experienced by confined French people comparable to the one you experienced on FaceOcean?

We are at home, with our entourage, our environment, perhaps alone, perhaps accompanied ... But we are not on a boat that is five square meters. We still have the phone, Skype, TV, fridge, Internet. We can talk to a lot of friends and besides I think we should benefit enormously.

How do you live this period?

It is much easier for people like us, lone sailors, to bear or not to be afraid of this isolation. In general, it's scary to think that we have no idea how long it will last.

And how to manage this uncertainty?

I don't think the number of days matters. The first day was long because we were afraid of it and then finally, when we spent the first day and we attacked the second… Well we already had a day of experience so the second was a little easier.

Stock of food, point Nemo and capricious albatross ... We discussed with Sébastien Destremau, last of the Vendée Globe https://t.co/38zJVdGI45 pic.twitter.com/5zlnVRbNVK

On the Vendée Globe, I no longer knew if we were on day 35, day 50 or day 120. The last days will be extremely long, when we are told: "Next Monday, you are going to put your nose out!" "

Shouldn't we project ourselves into the future?

No, because it's too hard to do that. Tell yourself that we're going to have a drink, that it's going to be great because we're going to be out in two weeks ... But the government may add a little week and if the date goes back, it will be complicated.

Is it useful to have an imaginary friend when you are alone?

Yes ! (Smile). On the boat, there were me and myself, already there were two of us. We both talked a lot. (More seriously) I talked to a lot of people, I had a lot of people with whom I shared the moments of joy, fear, sadness.

Were you talking alone?

Yes ! I was having a real conversation with other people ... who weren't there. You ask questions, you listen to the answers, you have a normal conversation, except that the answers are not real.

Sébastien Destremau is preparing the Vendée Globe 2020 from home. - F. Tanneau / AFP

I still do it moreover, when I make a long trip by car all alone, I take out sentences like that out loud because I am in the middle of a conversation with someone. If there was a microphone in the car, we would hear pieces of sentences! It helps a lot.

Does it make you less anxious?

First, it makes you less alone. When I was in the South Seas, I had no means to communicate easily - except in an emergency. I made conversations like that, that was normal.

You were talking to your loved ones?

Particularly to my twin brother. When I had more technical thoughts on the boat, I spoke to my other brother, Jean-Guillem, who was my technical director. I tried out loud to imagine failure scenarios, to formulate the next difficulty, to have my answer. Many of these conversations have allowed me not to call him for real. I already knew his answer.

Boredom is a huge luxury. Let us take advantage of this luxury to reflect: do we want to leave in the same way? "

It can be a little crazy to speak on your own, but no: you don't speak on your own when you speak on your own. When you are in a case like this one of extreme loneliness - and today there are people who are in cases of extreme loneliness - it is not to be crazy to have a conversation out loud with someone one you want to talk to.

Finally, do you have advice against boredom?

I had caused boredom: on the Vendée Globe, I had taken neither book, radio, nor playlist, to experience the event: not to make it harder, but to make it purer. And also because I knew I was going to be bored. Getting bored today is a luxury that not many people can afford. Sitting in a corner and doing nothing allows you to have a vision of what is going on around because you have time to watch it. His life, his friends, his conversations, we can review all of this while in normal life, we go from one thing to another, we keep on going.

Fishing activity, without beer. - S. Destremau / TechnoFirst FaceOcean

A child, when he is bored, sometimes he can become boring of course ... But he can also take a piece of paper and tell a story. And we do the same, it is not because we are adults that we should forbid it. Boredom is a huge luxury. Let us take advantage of this luxury to reflect: do we want to leave in the same way? We drove the car all the way on the highway of life, do we want to continue taking the car and set off again, or do we say that we can change two- three things?

I look out my window and I see vines. Nothing is moving, not a breath of wind. There is not a bit of air, the boat is stopped. We are stopped, let's take advantage of it. The race will start again.

Marseille

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Society

Coronavirus: 127 days alone in confinement… The man in the barrel gives you his advice

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