#06
Sunday 8th November 2020, 1:02pm. I was one of 35 contestants departing from Les Sables-d’Olonne for the Vendée Globe – the solo, unassisted, non-stop round-the-world sailing race.
I left behind the land, my friends and the whole world on that day, and wouldn’t see them again until 111 days later, on February 28th 2021, at 7:23 am.
I came 24th and I’m so proud to have completed this world tour, to have succeeded, to feel like I have won, to have achieved my dream.
It was not an easy task. I left with a small budget and a more than 20-year-old IMOCA, the Penguin, built in 1998 for Catherine Chabaud (Vendée Globe 2000).
This boat certainly knows its way around after 6 world tours and 4 Vendée Globe races. With it, I wanted to achieve the dream I have had since I was a little girl, obsessed with open-sea races and oceans.
My race was punctuated with intense moments of happiness, storms, calm waters and multiple surprises. I battled with the elements and the events of the race with the same determination, even when I was physically suffering, for the last three weeks, after falling on my back.
I am the 10th woman in the world among nearly 100 skippers to have finished the round-the-world race without stopping and without assistance. More people have been to space than have completed the Vendée Globe!
#738
Fifty four kilometres, more than two thousand six hundred entrants, my first big race and a dry mouth. I'm nervous but I am not a number.
#112
Alpine skiing was the first competitive sport I ever participated in. And I was coming from an island where there are no ski slopes. But I am not a number.
#339
My friends lined my hometown course and shouted my name in every corner. He beat me two weeks earlier but this day was my day, this course was my course.
#27
Since I was a sprinter and not a mountain goat, I always rode up front before climbs. The pace was slow, we were chatting during the ride and then, suddenly, „boom“.