There’s magic in the air at the Arctic Circle

In the secret garden of adventure enthusiasts, there are words that resonate a little louder and which, on their own, capture the imagination and the dream. A short list that inevitably includes a few deserts, mountain peaks that touch the sky, and headlands long thought to be impassable. And then there are points (Point Nemo) and lines, including the Arctic Circle. A long line stretching 15,985 km, below which land is scarce (northern Siberia, Greenland, the far north of Canada) and people rarely venture. 

“It’s grey, grey, grey here”

But it is a very different landscape that the sailors have described. “It’s grey, grey, grey here,” explained leader Sam Goodchild yesterday morning. “It’s a sort of fog and drizzle where there’s virtually no visibility,” confirms Elodie Bonafous (Association Petits Princes – Quéguiner). “Frankly, it’s a bit of a gloomy atmosphere.” “The landscape is completely lunar,” adds Violette Dorange. Nico d’Estais (Café Joyeux) makes the same observation: “Everything is grey – the water, the sky, the clouds… It’s Fifty Shades of Grey, but the family-friendly version!” Arnaud Boissières says that “all of a sudden, everything became very overcast. You can’t see much, but it’s really chilly.” 
 

“Something a bit out of the ordinary”

The drop in temperature – around 6 to 7°C in the air, 5°C in the water – is a reality they’ve had to face. “It’s not freezing, but it’s a cold you have to cope with,” admits Arnaud Boissières. Nico d’Estais is more emphatic, describing it as “a cold that gets right into your bones”. Violette Dorange also explains that she “shivered a lot”. “Note to self for the Vendée Globe: take several sleeping bags,” smiles Élodie. She also mentions the inside of the boat where “everything is soaked or half-soaked”. The air is “100% humidity,” says Nico, whilst Sam describes “heavy condensation everywhere inside the boat”. 

Be that as it may, everyone feels they have “done something a bit out of the ordinary”, as Élodie puts it. “We’ve gone right up north, to places you don’t visit every day,” says Ambrogio Beccaria. “Today we can say: that’s it, we’ve done it!” This Friday morning, Arnaud Boissières was continuing his progress towards the Arctic Circle. He has a lovely way of summing up this challenge, referring to it as a “rite of passage”. And so the skippers of the Vendée Arctique sail on, cherishing this little piece of history deep in their memories.