No, the Vendée Globe is not over for everyone

In the Vendée Globe, when more than a dozen competitors have made landfall, there are still eleven battling in the Atlantic.

The first half of the flotilla arrived in a week, while the second is expected in almost a month.

A little more than half of the fleet is therefore still at sea after 89 days of solo sailing.

Between an objective to be fulfilled and a dream to be realized, they all have in mind this solo round-the-world tour that must now be finished.

"So close and still so far ..."

First of all, there is this feeling of forgetting that must be fought when, on land, everyone celebrates the first arrivals.

And then, little by little, the race regains its rights.

This solo trip around the world, for Manuel Cousin, a 53-year-old former sales executive, is the goal of a lifetime, of his life.

He is currently 22nd just over 5,000 kms from Les Sables d'Olonne where he resides.

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"We think about it more and more, that's normal," explains the 53-year-old sailor, who has the two weeks left before touching land.

"Afterwards, it's true that we see the comrades arriving, so we take our trouble patiently, we try to stay focused not to do anything stupid. It's so close and still so far."

The last two "send each other messages every day"

If Manuel Cousin has found the North Atlantic, this is not yet the case with Alexia Barrier who is progressing off the coast of Brazil, just ahead of the Finnish Ari Huusela who brings up the rear.

The 41-year-old sailor hangs on and chats from a distance with her fellow traveler.

"Already, arriving at Cape Horn, he said to me 'I'm going to follow you because I've never passed him'. I said to him 'but Ari, me neither, but we're going straight'", smiles- it.

"Since then, we've been texting each other every day to check in on each other, and that's great."

Alexia Barrier and the Finnish Ari Huusela are expected in Sables d'Olonne in three weeks…