Clarisse Crémer in the Vendée Globe - Week 9: Keeping smiling and making memories
by L'Occitane Sailing Team 10 Jan 14:54 GMT
10 January 2025
It's not the unstable weather, the stress of threatening storms, the little repairs here and there, nor the physical glitches she talks about most often, that will ultimately remain of her long-distance sailing.
For although the small joys and great pleasures are often relegated to the background in logbooks and other accounts of the sea, it is in them that we find the answer to the eternal question of what drives sailors to explore these distant lands. And Clarisse Crémer is no exception to the rule!
"The balance of stories often falls on the wrong side: it's so much more work to accurately describe the joys associated with everything that goes. And even if I were to launch into a bad philosophy dissertation, I'd even say that the extent of possible distress in this world makes me dizzy when faced with the vulnerability of our joys," wrote Clarisse beautifully this week, in a text entitled 'Sharing Joy'. This was an opportunity for the skipper of L'Occitane en Provence to recount "a starry night, a real one", where "the sea and the sky merge to form a soft carpet". It's a sweet moment of contemplation, which the sailor has aspired to since her early days of ocean racing, with her unfailing capacity for wonder, and which she still takes great pleasure in sharing with those who follow her on her adventures. For, well aware that "big pains and little worries often seem to be of great interest to spectators", Clarisse also knows how to transport us with her, aboard her boat, contemplating the stars and wanting "time to stand still", as she says to herself "for the thousandth time: 'What a privilege to be here'".
If the sailor is able to take this little break from time, it's also thanks to a new-found calm, as she has been slowed down by the stationary front off Rio for the past 48 hours. And while temperatures are also getting milder as she makes her way northwards, it's no time for rest! With the thermometer hovering around 40 degreesC inside her navy blue rocket, Clarisse is struggling to sleep, while violent thunderstorms are trying to disturb her serenity.
Body and mind put to the test
The passage through Cabo Frio is proving to be particularly complicated at the start of the year, generating more than unstable conditions and thunderbolts which previous competitors have had to endure. This was a godsend for the skipper of L'Occitane en Provence, who made it back to the front of the pack thanks to a low-pressure system that pushed her as far as the Brazilian coast, before being picked off in her turn by this persistent cold front. A relative godsend, then, having just recovered from a painful back blockage: "It was very violent at the time. I'd had a little pain in my shoulder blade and shoulder for a few days, but I didn't pay too much attention to it. Then, all of a sudden, I bent over to pick something up, and 'schla', my neck and shoulder were completely blocked. The pain was so intense that I felt faint. I didn't lose consciousness, but I was sitting up sweating and feeling nauseous... I didn't feel well at all for several minutes!"
Clarisse quickly recovered thanks to appropriate medication, on the advice of the race doctors, but admitted that this temporary injury had been a real blow, coming "to add another layer" at a time when she was in tough conditions and in poor shape: "I had 35 knots, I was in the middle of the low-pressure system, there were horrible seas, you feel vulnerable and fragile... I wasn't in a good phase, I felt tired, I had the impression that I wasn't sailing well, that I didn't have the keys to what I was doing. "
So, there's no room for frustration when it comes to finding lighter winds again, having opted for a westerly bypass of this level crossing. A successful gamble for her predecessors, which for the moment seems to be paying off for Clarisse too, back in 11th place yesterday lunchtime. Hampered since the early days of the race by the loss of her large gennaker and the jamming of one of her foil jacks in the Indian Ocean, she nevertheless regretted not having been able to go east, seeing her playmate Benjamin Dutreux escape, and Samantha Davies gradually come back: "I no longer have an AIS, and my VHF doesn't seem to be working either, so I didn't feel like going close to the coast where there are the most boats... But the door wasn't opening for me at all... So it's all going to come down to a bit of success, all we need is a bit more light air, thunderstorms that are more or less easy, trade winds that are more or less easterly...".
Sam, the reunion
Had her luck changed? Also challenged by her recent computer problems, which are working again, but without any certainty that they will last, Clarisse remains on the move, continuing to make do in the middle of a zone that is still very unsettled. Flashing along at 19.5 knots on Thursday morning in a squall, she's struggling to make headway this Friday at an average of around 7 knots, stuck in the front moving northeast at the same time. The horizon should soon clear ahead of her, however, when she should benefit from a low-pressure system that will enable her to keep the wind up. An opportunity to escape?
In any case, it's enough to put a smile back on her face and add another "moment like this, fleeting, intimate and difficult to express" to her memory board, which will "more than balance the scales of my story".