Pacific Considerations…
One week after Moorea's departure, the skipper of Use It Again! by Extia follows the days at a good pace on the Pacific. Crossing the 180th meridian at the beginning of the day, the trimaran left the western hemisphere of the planet to tip over to the East.
Romain's words:
“Pacific consideration of Local May 7, somewhere between New Zealand, the islands of Vanuatu and New Caledonia.
When I zoom out the card from my computer, I tell myself that it's an incredible dream come true. I left our small Breton port in the middle of winter to be here today, at the end of the world. After everything that happened...
I like to take a step back from all this. I am happy, proud too, when I see my boat, this little dot on the map from Papeete, and then to see it pass the longitude of all these fabulous Islands of the Pacific in which I would like to stop one day with Use It Again! by Extia to talk about education, awareness... Tonga, Samoa, Fiji... I realize that with this fast-moving trimaran, the world is smaller! I am moved because these are places that have always made me dream and I who love the Pacific so much, I would never have imagined that one day, I will be there, solo, on my boat. Whatever the mode: race, not race, record, I really do my best, I give myself constantly on this reference time between Moorea and Cape Town (unofficial).
From the start, it is a fairly committed navigation, quite lively with varied but rather strong conditions. The trade wind is supported and the sea well formed. I sometimes feel really small, curled up on my ottoman at the feet of the card table so as not to fly in the boat. Use It Again! by Extia is fine, I'm good on my trimaran, I trust him... I have to preserve the equipment as much as possible, it's sometimes stressful but it's the game of navigation on these boats, it's not cruising.
At the moment, I am sliding port towards New Caledonia with a wind to the Southeast. I will leave it in my North or in my South depending on the strategy to approach the Torres Strait where there is, for the moment, a large area of petole. I certainly could not avoid it, but we will have to be opportunistic.
Today, I had moral ups and downs, some small technical points to clarify, nothing serious, just electronics and a little concern for energy. When you are alone, far from everything, it is not always easy to manage these variations of the mind. I know that it is also in the head that this long journey will be played. I would have only done a third of the 11,000 miles when I got to the Torres Strait... Then, there will remain all the bypass of Australia and then the Indian Ocean to swallow.
This is just the beginning and there are a lot of things that carry me, I think a lot aboutUse It Again!,following this World Tour, what I will do to have more impact and make the best use of this World Tour in the service of the protection of the Ocean, the circular economy and for our commitment to the fight against global warming. These perspectives nourish and motivate me on a daily basis, it gives even more meaning to this navigation ... ”
