Vendée Globe, Week 8: 35 Years, Cape Horn, and the New Year
Sunshine, smooth seas, problems solved, and the world lights up! After a ‘dark week’ at the end of the year and the start of the new one finally seems to be spoiling Clarisse, who has regained her smile and her computer. With the sun, wind, dolphins, and albatrosses in tow, as well as rounding Cape Horn, it seemed as if the Pacific Ocean wanted to make amends.
After a Christmas when ‘my heart wasn’t really in it’ and a gloomy birthday, admitting that it was ‘the day when I felt most in a bad mood’, ‘grumpy Clarisse’ ended 2024 on much better notes! She had regretted not being able to hug her daughter or enjoy her family, but she consoled herself with ‘the ocean, the albatrosses, and all the melancholy in the world to feel the love of people who aren’t there’, and it was more than enough! On Wednesday, December 31st, the skipper of L'Occitane en Provence was enjoying the return of pleasant sea and wind conditions, more conducive to rest, enabling her to get back on track after a tough crossing of the Pacific Ocean. Just a few miles from Cape Horn, she declared that she was ‘in good spirits,’ despite slower speeds, competitors closing in on her transom, and a to-do list that kept her busy on a long, windless day.
On Thursday, January 1st, to kick off the New Year, she passed the third and final cape of her journey, at 15:19:07 (FR), after 52 days, 2 hours, 17 minutes, and 7 seconds at sea. Now a double Cape Horn-er, and very proud of it, the ‘old sea wolf’ she is becoming, Clarisse watched as her rival Benjamin Dutreux closed in, until they exchanged a few positions, and she snatched 11th place away from him. But once again, her mental strength was the strongest, and she was aided by a real gift from Mother Nature when a horde of dolphins arrived, accompanied by a swarm of albatrosses, against a backdrop of blue skies chasing away the dreariness. It was a breathtaking sight, with the giants of the sky and the black-and-white porpoises, typical of the cold waters of the sub-Antarctic, constantly stealing the show. ‘The most beautiful day of my life,’ she enthused, or at least of the year so far.
Imagination to Compensate
Well escorted for her return to the Atlantic, Clarisse could also rejoice at the return of the wind after 48 hours of light airs. This was due to a zone of calm, which at least had the merit of giving her time to enjoy herself, as rounding Cape Horn solo remains a feat within the reach of so few. And while this year, the yachtswoman will again be unable to admire the mythical rock, lost in thick fog about forty miles to her north, imagination can compensate, and contemplation can be invented. ‘You can’t see Cape Horn, but you can imagine it! I’m making do with what I’ve got, and it’s fair to say that starting 2025 isn’t bad at all. It’s soft, it’s slow, we’re getting caught up from behind, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be very fast either on the road ahead, but it feels really good! I feel like I’ve just come out of a month’s hibernation’.
With a smile on her face and her cheeks warmed by the sun, Clarisse Crémer can indeed savour the moment after having been through so much in the infamous conditions, where the cold, hail, and snow all played their part in her ordeal. With a rested face, Clarisse Crémer can also take satisfaction in the fact that she can see things more clearly now that she’s on her way back to Les Sables d’Olonne, with her onboard computer repaired and her routing software back in place. There’s no longer any need to rely on secondary navigation software to guide her now that she and her team have managed to repair the primary onboard computer after many long hours of painstaking work in stormy seas: ‘I’ve never been so happy to see a Windows logo in my life; it brought tears to my eyes!’
Back to Tactics
With the ‘survival’ atmosphere of the Pacific behind her, the skipper of L'Occitane en Provence can now get back into strategy mode. Once again armed for a final sprint which promises to be as full of uncertainties as it is of hellish racing, in contact with her main rivals, she will be able to express the full extent of her talent. To defy the elements one last time, across a final ocean which should also have its share of surprises, between well-established anticyclonic bubbles, poorly established trade winds, the Doldrums to renegotiate, and the final month to absorb...