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Vendée Globe: “From despair to crazy stuff”, the story of Kevin Escoffier's rescue

2020-12-02T03:58:08.782Z


Off the Cape of Good Hope, Kevin Escoffier was rescued in the night from Monday to Tuesday by Jean Le Cam after 11 hours of efforts, d


On the 22nd day of racing, it is 2:46 pm on Monday at 550 miles -1,018 km - southwest of the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa.

Third in the Vendée Globe, Kevin Escoffier is sailing in the midst of the roaring 40ths, this area renowned for its strong winds and terrible storms.

The weather conditions are tough but nothing impossible for the 40-year-old Saint-Malo, who has already completed two round-the-world crewed tours.

The wind blows at 30 knots (55 km / h) and the swell digs waves of 5 m.

The PRB skipper, however, triggered his distress beacon and sent, via messenger, a single message to his shore team "I'm sinking, it's not bullshit, Mayday!"

(SOS) "" It's surreal, shouts the winner of the Jules Verne trophy in 2012. The boat has folded in on itself.

In four seconds it crashed.

"

On November 11, PRB had already suffered a damage that the skipper, an engineer by training, was able to repair.

This time he is helpless.

"I heard a crack but there was no need for the noise to understand," he says.

Within seconds, there was water everywhere.

The stern of the boat was underwater, the bow pointed skyward.

It broke in two, as if folded up.

Have you watched shipwreck movies?

It was the same, only worse "

PRB begins its descent without return into the abyss: “It's a crazy thing.

I didn't have time to do anything.

"

“I saw smoke, the electronics burning.

Everything was extinguished ”

Race management is immediately notified.

She triggers help and orders Jean Le Cam (Yes we Cam) to head for the shipwreck area.

The oldest of the events, 61, is likely to be the fastest to reach the scene.

Thomas Rettant (Linkedout) is less far but to save Escoffier, he has to turn around with a headwind.

Useless.

When Le Cam is routed, Escoffier saves what can be.

That is to say nothing.

"I put as I could GST (

Editor's note:

c

ombination survival

).

I saw smoke, the electronics burning.

Everything was extinguished.

I wanted to take the grab bag (

Editor's note:

survival bag

) but I did not succeed because the water was rising.

Everything was going too fast.

I took a tidal wave and went into the water with the raft.

"

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Vendée Globe: "Jean Le Cam would never have abandoned Kevin Escoffier"


It is 5 pm when Le Cam arrives in the area.

“I see Kevin.

I say to myself:

impeccable!

I tell him:

I'm coming back, we're not going to do anything

.

With the sea that there was, not easy to maneuver, ”he says.

“We said 2-3 words to each other.

It was Verdun on the water.

Jean was forced to move away a bit and I stayed in the raft, ”continues Escoffier, who is reluctant to take the plunge.

Escoffier disappears into the night

Night is falling.

Escoffier is in his fragile canoe, at the mercy of the elements.

Nothing tells him that the story will end well.

“I was not at all reassured, he confirms.

You are in a raft with 35 knots of wind.

No, it is not reassuring.

"

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You have to imagine the scene: in 5 m hollows, Le Cam is at the helm of an 18 m long monohull and must turn very slowly, under canvas, around the wreck, far enough not to damage his boat and close enough to save his friend.

“When I got back to where I left him, Kevin was no longer there.

I thought:

Oh my!

»

, Worries Le Cam who has to repeat 5 or 6 exhausting laps.

Physically and mentally.

VIDEO.

Vendée Globe: "It's a crazy thing", confides Kévin Escoffier after his rescue at sea by Jean Le Cam

Also warned, reinforcements arrived on site around 10 p.m.

Yannick Bestaven (Maître-Coq IV), Boris Hermann (SeaExplorer) and Sébastien Simon (Arkéa-Paprec) mark out the area, according to orders meticulously given by the race director, on land.

Jean le Cam rests for a good hour.

But Escoffier is still nowhere to be found.

PRB meanwhile is just a memory.

The boat has disappeared from the surface.

Hours of anguish and then finally ...

The hours are long and agonizing.

Every fifteen minutes, the PC sends a point to indicate the position of the unfortunate but still nothing on the horizon.

Above all, no sign of life.

Monday gives way to Tuesday in the southern night when Jean Le Cam finally sees the light, a real light: the “Flash Ligth” of the raft which indicates the position of the castaway: “I was standing on the bridge and I see a flash, tells Le Cam.

Well, it wasn't a flash.

It is the light that appears in a wave.

An apparition !

I say to myself:

it's not true!

I continued and there you see the light more and more and you say to yourself:

it's good

.

You go from desperation to crazy stuff.

The euphoria is the same for Escoffier who hears, in the dark, the cries of comfort from his savior.

It is around 1:30 in the morning but nothing is won.

The Cam sends a sylzig buoy with straps at each end and handles in the direction of his comrade.

Escoffier clings on, with difficulty.

“I managed to grab a bar that Jean handed me to get on board.

There was still sea. It's a test in these conditions to get on board especially when you are constrained in your movements by the wetsuit.

Fortunately I am in good physical shape because I assure you that it is not easy.

"

"Damn, you're on board!"

It is 2:18 am when Escoffier is finally safe and dry.

Skype remained on and on the ground, the race management saw Le Cam descend into the cockpit, followed by Escoffier.

“When I found myself on board with Jean, we fell into each other's arms.

He said to me:

Damn, you're on board!

It was hot !

And I said to him:

I'll fuck your race, you were having a great race

.

He answered me:

it doesn't matter, the last time I was the one who had put Vincent's race flat ”

.

In 2009, Jean Le Cam had himself been rescued off Cape Horn when his boat had overturned.

He had been saved by Vincent Riou, then skipper of a boat named… PRB.

Jean Le Cam is, this time, still in the race.

An international jury will study in the coming hours the bonus which it will benefit from for having turned away.

The disembarkation of Kevin Escoffier is being studied and could be done in Kerguelen, in several days.

Source: leparis

All sports articles on 2020-12-02

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