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Happy, he who like...
« Happy », « content » and most of all impressed by the ever festive and enthusiastic welcome put on by the Mexicans from Yucatan. Reactions from skippers returning to terra firma after 31 days at sea racing from Saint Nazaire to Progreso. 11 boats came into Progreso this morning. The next boat in will be none other than Crédit Maritime, the Franco-Mexican driven Class 40. Patrice Carpentier and Victor Maldonado made a great comeback after having made two pitstops early on to repair their automatic pilot ! They are the most emblematic team in the fleet of the race which has met with enormous popular success in Mexico.
Denis Lazat
(Plan, les enfants changeront le monde) : « I’m very happy to have
crossed the finishing line. This has been a long race. At worst, we had prepared
to spend 26-28 days at sea but we ended up racing one week more. What an epic
race with conditions which were much more difficult and for much longer than we
might ever have imagined. The last three days were fun and here we are in Mexico,
palm trees, hamacs. Now
that does you good! We’ve been through so much, particularly the storms before the Caribbean withlightening everywhere, torrential rain
and particularly wind which whipped up from 0 to35 knots in next to no time.
Our pitstop in Saint Barts did us the world of good. The team work Fréderic and
I put in. We’ve progressed so much working together on this race not on
manoeuvres and so on, but in terms of boat management and weather. A fantastic experience.
»
Erik Nigon (Axa
Atout Cœur pour Aides) : « What an icnredible reception on our arrival in
Progreso. Friendly, funny, simple. Unusual in fact : a hero’s welcome and yet we
have never quite just spent 30 days sailing just for the fun of it ! Spontaneous and pleasant, I’m
pleased to have finished. 32 days is quite some time to be at sea. Time to
change our habits and rhythm. Back to life on
earth now. We’re pleased to have finished the race after crossing the Caribbean with
its fair share of difficulties too, particularly off the coast of Jamaica. I
will always remember when we took our last left turn towards the Yucatan, the
water changed to a very strong green colour. Just like the water we left behind
in the Canary islands before having 3 or 4 days in 28-30 knot winds. The boat
glided along and we felt more as if we were on a windsurfing board than a boat
in the middle of the Atlantic! »
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