Wednesday 24th December 2008
CHRISTMAS ABOARD SODEB'O
TODAY’S RADIO SESSION
For some days now, Thomas Coville has been racking up over 500 mile days and
is just three days from Cape Horn now.
Christmas menu aboard Sodeb’O: telephone, risotto and a few surprise
presents
“For Christmas Eve, I’m going to speak to a lot of people over the
telephone. Christmas is a lovely festival which celebrates the family,
friendship and love. Here though I’m going to be cut off from all that and a
party atmosphere has no significance out here. I’m still going to knock up a
special little menu though with a risotto given to me by a friend who owns a
restaurant, and I also have some cured ham. In addition to that my family
and friends have left some surprises and presents in the boat. I’m going to
track them down today or tomorrow which will be a nice moment.”
Alone on Christmas Eve amidst the ice and three days from Cape Horn
“My Christmas Eve is quite special in that I’m surrounded by ice. In fact
it’s a drifting zone of ice which has decided to invite itself slap bang
across our course for Christmas Eve! I am highly concentrated and very much
on my guard with these new festive guests. Christmas is a family festival
with children, but this isn’t really the case for me today. I’ve been alone
for over a month on my boat and I have nobody in my universe to share this
festival with. I’m not in the same reality”.
Frosty atmosphere aboard Sodeb’O, which is slaloming towards Cape Horn
amidst a field of icebergs
“My reality is that I’m in a sensitive zone. There’s a very large band of
ice which last year was just a single iceberg and has since shattered into
pieces. I’m slaloming between 100 icebergs which are hard to avoid and are
making things a lot more complicated. Nevertheless, I am not very far south
on a latitude of 50°S. This year we’re managing to locate the icebergs
thanks to the satellites, which results in a less kamikaze approach as we’re
no longer sailing blindfolded. However, this is forcing us onto a very N’ly
course. The water temperature is at 3 to 5° whilst the air is 5°. However,
with the speed, the chill factor means that it feels like -10°. There is a
film of ice and frost on deck and some frost on the boat’s portholes…”
As regards the record, anything is still possible
“I’m hanging onto the possibility of making up time on the climb up the
Southern Atlantic. Francis Joyon’s course was absolutely unbeatable as far
as the Horn but there are ways of making inroads into the record run on the
way up the Southern Atlantic. There will be total suspense right to the
wire”.
Sailing single-handed in a multihull requires superhuman physical commitment
and morale, especially when you learn that a sailor performing a
circumnavigation of the globe sleeps for around three hours in every 24 hour
period. And that it is often outside!
“I give myself the line of living from day to day, without the constant
pressure of the final goal. I admit that doesn’t work everyday. On a
physical level? I know myself very well and I’m able to get the boat making
good headway. With the cold I take more time to perform manœuvres, and I
haven’t slept much since the start. The pace is fairly hard but I’m handling
it quite well. I should point out that I’ve slept less than 3 hours a day
since the start and I sleep outside a lot. At the moment my life is centred
on keeping watch outside to look out for icebergs and manœuvre. I am in
sight of a few icebergs right now… I am within 100m of some of them”.
AUDIO, VIDEO, IMAGES AND CARTOGRAPHY ACCESSIBLE FROM THE press zone on the
site www.sodebo-voile.com
Translated by Kate Jennings – Expression
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