Life as a sailor in the Vendée Globe is not really easy.
The proof once again with Samantha Davies (Initiatives Cœur) and Sébastien Simon (Arkéa Paprec).
Both were hit hard by poisonous arrows from the Indian Ocean and their boat hit by a shock with an unidentified floating object.
Stopped dead in their round-the-world trip, they were forced to turn the turn signal to the left to go north, try to repair and save what can be done.
Less serious than the case of Kevin Escoffier, their adventure comes to an end and it saddens them.
Morally and physically affected.
As they confided this Thursday during discussions with the organization ...
Samantha Davies: "it was violent"
“I had gybed behind the front, there was 30 knots of wind.
I was advancing between 15 and 22 knots in complicated seas.
I typed as if I was on the heels of a rock: I stopped dead.
There were creaks.
I flew, everything in the boat flew, including my dinner.
It was violent, I hurt myself.
I dropped everything right away to stop the boat.
I typed an UFO, I don't know what it was.
I went directly to look around the keel, I knew straight away that it was not the foil but the keel.
The bearings are fine, the bulkheads of each front and rear landing are fine.
On the other hand, all the longitudinal bulkheads in the keel well are cracked.
This is where the shock was cushioned.
I did checks, I have the shore team on standby who work with the architects.
There I must take shelter, I move towards Cape Town very slowly.
I have the storm, I am downwind but there is a fair amount of sea. I am 310 miles from Cape Bonne-Esperance.
It happened at nightfall: it's always the same, it's always the hard times!
Then I was in the dark night to control everything.
It was the same thing when I had dismasted, it was in the middle of the night (
Sam Davies had dismasted in the Vendée Globe 2012/2013
).
I did what I could, in 30 knots of wind, in huge seas.
The priority was to stabilize the boat and put it on a course where it is less strained possible.
I did checks with the team.
The shock displaced the keel cylinder bellows which seals between the keel well and the cylinder.
Suddenly, I took water.
The priority was therefore to manage it, it was a little cracked on the joints.
At first, I turned on the immersion pump - which is great by the way - I turned it on directly to empty the water that came in through the keel well.
It was the most important.
I flew in the boat but was lucky because it could have been worse, but my ribs hurt.
"
Sébastien Simon: "I'm disgusted, it's unfair"
“I'm a bit annoyed, disgusted.
I want to finish this round the world trip, I don't think I deserve it, I think it's an incredible injustice, said the skipper of the Arkéa-Paprec boat.
The foil is damaged but the structuring part of the foil is not broken.
I cannot use it as is.
The foil damaged the lower part of the foil well which is detached from the boat and brings in water.
The only way to fix this is to cut the foil into pieces.
The foil is still not far from 300 kilos and I cannot cut it from the outside.
I have to cut it from the top.
To succeed in repairing this, I have to cut the foil into pieces and then go and plug the foil well from the outside and from the inside.
I have to lean outside the boat, but for that I need stable sea conditions, but this is not the case today, neither in 12 hours, nor in 24 hours for that matter.
I am therefore obliged to approach a land.
On top of that, I have a damaged bulkhead behind, under the cockpit.
I don't know if it's related, if it's collateral damage or not.
I realized this when I went to empty some water.
I know that the day before this partition was not broken, and that today it is.
And since shit never happens on its own, I have the rudder rudder boot which is torn.
Suddenly, every two hours, I have to go pumping for 40 minutes under the cockpit floor, which is not a pleasant place at all. "
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