Every week since the start of the Vendée Globe, Charlie Dalin has been keeping a logbook for Europe 1. On his monohull Apivia, the 36-year-old skipper talks about his impressions on the approach to Cape Leeuwin, after a strong storm in the seas. South.

Always first in the race, he tries to keep his meager lead just a stone's throw from the Pacific Ocean.

TESTIMONY

One month after the start of the Vendée Globe, Charlie Dalin continues to amaze: the 36-year-old skipper, who is competing in his first edition on his Apivia monohull, is still leading the solo race.

But its lead is reduced as Thomas Rettant (LinkedOut) and Yannick Bestaven (Maître Coq IV) progress as they approach Cape Leeuwin, Australia.

This is also one of the goals in view for the sailor, who draws up for Europe 1 an initial assessment of these few weeks of racing, after a trying storm for him and his boat.

“After a month of racing, I went through a big 'secondary depression' as it is called in the jargon. It is a depression that forms on one forehead, with extremely violent episodes. For those who remember. of the Route du Rhum 2006, which had decimated the Orma fleet (a class of multihulls, editor's note), it was the same weather phenomenon that the competitors had suffered. It is a phenomenon that has a history with ocean racing and which has decimated entire fleets in the past. Having to face this phenomenon halfway, in the middle of nowhere, between Africa and Australia, was no small feat.

What struck me the most?

These are mostly sounds, like the sound of the wind roaring in the mast.

The Roaring Forties do not bear their name for nothing!

Depending on the intensity of the gusts, the wind and the roar were more or less strong.

The closer the storm got, the closer the weather phenomenon was to me and the stronger it was.

I didn't know how far it was going to go on.

Fate caused my airplanes to stop working two hours before the storm started.

I didn't know exactly how much wind I had.

My only benchmark was the speed of the boat and that noise, that sound of the extremely violent wind in the mast of the boat.

"Physically and morally marking"

During this depression, I was in contact with my technical director, Antoine Carraz, who asked me to warn them if I made a change of trajectory so that they did not worry.

When I had to change course once or twice to maneuver and reduce the airfoil, I alerted them.

Obviously, I warned them when, finally, the noise of the wind began to decrease, that the gusts were less and less strong and that the wind started to turn.

It was a sign that the weather phenomenon was moving away from me.

I sent a message to my partner, first, to tell her that it looked good, that the wind seemed to be easing.

Then to my technical director, to warn him that the big one seemed to have passed and that we were going to get out of it.

It is sure that it is a storm which gave me confidence in the capacity of Apivia and mine to overcome strong gales.

Now when I see strong wind it takes a lot to worry about!

I feel like I earned my stripes as a sailor from the South Seas thanks to this storm.

It was striking, physically and morally.

I think it took me a little while to recover from my emotions, to recover physically from this passage where I was really at the limit, on the wire.

"It went quickly, but…"

After a month at sea, it's quite paradoxical because at the same time, I have the impression that time flies, but when I retrace everything that I have done since my departure from Les Sables d'Olonne, I have all my days in mind, all my maneuvers.

Things have happened.

I have done a lot of maneuvers, change of trajectory, trajectory calculations ... It went quickly but, when I go into detail, I realize the distance traveled and the number of things I have done .

I have not been idle!

I have the passage of Cape Leeuwin in mind.

It's in a little over 24 hours, I'll spend it on Sunday.

This is the second big milestone (of the race), out of three.

I will cross this symbolic point.

Afterwards, I will be able to find myself in the Pacific and discover this new ocean and the seas of the southern ocean.

I think we're going to go much further south and the temperatures will drop even further.

So far, I haven't suffered from the cold, it might start.

Will I take advantage of it?

I do not know.

I am being brought up by boats.

We will see tomorrow morning how far they are and if I will have a calm day to reach Cape Leeuwin. "