Romain's sound of Saturday November 10
At 2 p.m. this Thursday, Romain Pilliard left La Coruña in Spain after an 8-hour pit stop to repair his mainsail cars. The sailor and his Ultime trimaran have left, ready to cross the Atlantic! In front of the bows of the trimaran Remade-Use It Again, an ocean to cross, i.e. 3200 miles to complete this Route du Rhum-Destination Guadeloupe.
“A bowl of cereal and it starts again! »
On Wednesday, Romain Pilliard informed his technical team that he regretted the breakage of several mainsail cars while he was sailing under 3 reefs alone. Unable to make repairs at sea, the sailor chose to divert to La Coruña, immediately joined by the Remade-Use It Again team. " It's surreal, I'm on La Route du Rhum and I just slept 4 hours in a hotel. I ate a little too, which I hadn't done since leaving Saint-Malo... There will still be a few difficult hours to get out of the Portuguese coast, but I want to go. I want to cross, I want to live this adventure to the end. I lose a day but if we see the positive side of the situation it will allow me to be in better shape to attack the rest! “Explains the skipper of Remade-Use It Again, who discovered on his arrival in La Coruña, the various damages and abandonments of the last days on La Route du Rhum. " I'm really sad for them, I can't even imagine how they can feel... Today, even if I'm very, very far from François Gabart and Francis Joyon, I'll have a completely different story to tell, this will be my story, and that of the circular economy trimaran. When asked about the podium now accessible in Ultimate, he replied: "I don't dare believe it, I'm leaving for Guadeloupe, doing my best to take my trimaran there as quickly as possible, we'll think about it. later reveals Romain Pilliard as he leaves La Coruña.
“Hanging on my router”
Not very talkative during these first three days of racing, Romain does not hide the fact that he has been through hell. He is one of the rookies of La Route du Rhum and after 12 days on land in Saint-Malo, the reality was somewhat violent: “ I clearly put the race on hold for two days. Having three such strong depressions is not trivial. The sea was terrible, it was going all over the place. The boat was totally uncomfortable, I was doing the bare minimum standing up, I was sick, I was vomiting during my manoeuvres, because maneuvers on this boat are long and require a lot of energy, especially in these weather conditions. In short, at that time, there was nothing else on earth… I was hanging on to information from Christian Dumard, my router. I was going to draw energy, I do not know where, just to go on the road that he indicated to me. I am happy because I did not feel in danger, I was not afraid. The boat is super seaworthy, I felt safe so I didn't feel the stress of capsizing or dismasting" adds Romain Pilliard.
An ocean to cross
3,195 miles is the theoretical distance between the skipper of Remade-Use It Again in Guadeloupe, to succeed in this crazy project of taking the circular economy and all its partners to the finish line of the Route du Rum-Destination Guadeloupe. " Romain is leaving this afternoon with a southerly wind of 25 knots. The wind will turn to the west and then ease off. We will have to take advantage of the shift behind the front to descend south as quickly as possible by tomorrow to move away from the center of the following depression which is very active and which will affect it on Friday and Saturday. From Sunday, it will be downwind and will be able to pick up the trade winds “, specifies Christian Dumard, meteorologist and router of Romain Pilliard.
VIDEO OF THE DEPARTURE FROM LA CORUNA