A few hours before Christmas Eve, Europe 1 went to find out about the sailors engaged in the Vendée Globe race, who are currently in the middle of the Pacific or the Indian Ocean.

This year, solo parties await them, but their families have still thought of everything so that they can experience the magic of Christmas.

"I have a bag called Santa's Hood. I just have to ask my team when I can open it but I can't wait to find out. I know there is foie gras in it because I love it ", exclaims, laughing voice, Maxime Sorel.

The sailor is preparing to spend his first New Year's Eve at sea, just like 14 of the 27 competitors still racing in the Vendée Globe.

A lonely Christmas awaits sailors, right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or the Indian Ocean.

This particular holiday season is experienced in a different way depending on the sensibilities.

"It is the first time" also for Yannick Bastaven, that he will celebrate Christmas alone.

And he is looking forward to it: "For the menus, I think we are going to prepare some nice little things and I know that I have surprises to open. And then it's also original to have Christmas at sea! "

"I would have liked to have been with my family rather than alone on my boat"

For Thomas Rouillard, it is a little more difficult.

Her regret is not being able to share this family moment with her 8-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.

“I would have liked to have been with my family rather than alone on my boat, but that's how I chose it,” he breathes.

But he will still be able to see his "little wolves" in video.

"So there will still be a little Christmas air on board!", He reassures himself.

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This solitude during the holidays, Jean Le Cam prefers to share it.

On board his monohull, he throws a bottle into the sea for all those who are alone on New Year's Eve.

"I wink at all the people who are a little lonely at times like this ... It's something touching to do Christmas alone", he said in his message, broadcast on Europe 1 .

Christmas dinner "will do him good instantly"

But a detail to put a little balm in the heart of these adventurers: the Christmas meal.

Often concocted by their families, it allows them to be teleported straight to the New Year's table in the South Seas. 

And that, Martine, the mother of the sailor Clarisse Cremer, understood immediately.

She added a family touch to this Christmas meal at sea. "She really likes a certain family stuffing that you put in Christmas poultry. So, I made her Bresse poultry supremes, a morel sauce. and this farce, ”she admits. 

For Jean Le Cam, there will be on the menu for his fifth Christmas at a distance "monkfish liver, foie gras, veal rice, crab and Queen Astrid chocolate", reveals Anne Le Cam.

She, too, prepared an improved menu for her hero, the savior of Kevin Escoffier, the newly decorated Officer of Maritime Merit.

"It's true that he doesn't like to be alone at Christmas, food is still something concrete, which will do him good instantly, that's for sure", adds Anne Le Cam. 

This New Year's Eve on the water certainly promises to be lonely, but it will be greedy, for sure.