More than a week on the road for Thomas Rettant and LinkedOut -

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  • Thomas Rouillard is still at the forefront of the Vendée Globe fleet

  • But a week before the arrival, fatigue is felt

  • "A day at sea is worth two on land", explains the skipper on LinkedOut

“We see the good faces of a sailor broken at sea.” The colorful phrase we owe to Vincent Riou during a discussion on the state of sailors at a time when the head of the Vendée Globe was attacking the cape Horn, remains relevant.

Several thousand miles to the North, faces are still growing for the leaders engaged in an interminable struggle for two and a half months.

The regatta aspect of the race may hold its own, that's not enough.

Thomas Rouillard on LinkedOut can attest to this.

“I'm exhausted, blows the Northerner.

When I see myself, I realize that my features are drawn.

There is a deep fatigue that has set in and it is even more true with an arrival like that.

A day at sea is worth two on land.

"

Perhaps even more after passing the last of the three capes, which many mistakenly equate to a return home before sinking into the most total depression realizing that there are 7,000 miles to go to reach the Vendée .

“I had been warned upstream that often, we could arrive at Cape Horn, telling ourselves that it was deliverance, reassures the Dunkirk.

But I managed to have my thoughts clear and concentrate on the road.

"

Sleep before a muscular finale

To survive three months at sea there is no secret: you have to drink, eat and therefore sleep.

Keeping a regular sleep is essential to allow a well-dented body to endure the last maneuvers before arriving safely in Les Sables d'Olonne.

Fortunately for Thomas Rouillard, the Atlantic does not reserve only its capricious doldrums for the sailors who cross it.

This week, the head of the fleet took advantage of the well-established trade winds and the long tack that goes with it.

Concretely, that means a "flat" sea, good weather and time slots for sleeping - with a tanning option.

Loud, to the report: “I have recovered rather well these last days even if it remains relative.

We have time to lie down, to have long naps.

Now is the time to rest, because on the very last technical maneuvers over the last two or three days, it will be necessary to be in good shape and clear-headed about the last choices on board.

"

Lucidity, let's talk about it.

Because, contrary to what one might think, an error at this stage of the race is not just a matter of a missed trajectory or loss of speed.

It is also about the integrity of a boat also on the verge of burnout.

"We need lucidity in the maneuver," Vincent Riou told us at the beginning of January.

Because the problem with sailing on big boats is that you have to do a lot of maneuvers quite automatically.

As soon as you make a maneuver error, you can generate breakage and this breakage is always a bit heavy to assume because everything is big, everything is heavy, it's big pieces.

So it's more consequences and more fatigue.

"

Thomas Rouillard is in a good position to talk about it: he had to amputate his starboard foil on the descent of the Atlantic and scramble to repair a waterway in the southern seas.

“That plus my weather vane and hook problems, that's by far what hit me the most on this round the world trip.

So I make sure I listen to my boat as much as possible to bring it back with integrity.

Every day, for example, I stop the boat for 5-10 minutes to go see the structure, have a visual check.

The sails are starting to be worn, the ropes too, there are squeaks and squeaks that we did not hear at the start.

The boat is more tired than the sailor.

"

Fatigue and frustration

Less tired but tired all the same, the skipper.

The scars of a world tour are physical and psychological so much so that, as Michel Desjoyeaux says, sailors go into unfiltered mode under the influence of wear and tear.

“The more we are tired of the sea, the more sincere we are and the less we hide our frustrations.

“Those of the northerner skipper concern the premature loss of this starboard foil which he would really need at the moment.

“The race situation is not easy for me.

It's a long starboard side favorable to foilers, and I'm no longer one.

Morally it's complicated because I can hardly compete with the more purring foilers around me.

We feel that it's the end of the race and I have a power deficit, so I'm trying to make a good trajectory.

A week from the epilogue, all means become good to scratch time.

For the win.

And to find a real bed as quickly as possible.

Three months without a night's sleep is starting to add up.

Sport

Vendée Globe: Between exhilaration and extreme fatigue, what final sprint for the front of the fleet?

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