Where Daylight Never Ends
For several days now, the IMOCA fleet has been climbing towards latitudes rarely visited in competition. The Hebrides gradually gave way to the Faroe Islands, and soon to the Arctic Circle itself.With every mile sailed north, the atmosphere changes. The sky hangs lower. The light becomes softer and more diffuse. Contrasts begin to disappear. “Up here, it’s grey, grey, grey,” said Sam Goodchild early this morning. “It’s either fog or cloud everywhere. At times, it really feels like the Southern Ocean.” Yet the fleet leader is rediscovering a very different phenomenon: the gradual disappearance of night. “It was 3:30 in the morning and I could already see the sun behind the clouds. Even at midnight or one o’clock, I didn’t need a headlamp. It’s quite special.” Life on board has taken on its own distinctive character. The cold is gradually settling in, but above all it is the humidity that is taking its toll. “There’s condensation everywhere inside the boat,” summarised the Franco-British skipper. A feeling shared by Elodie Bonafous. “I’m cold. I’ve brought out my warmest layers. With the humidity, everything becomes more complicated. Everything is either wet or half-wet.” For the sailor from Finistère, the surroundings have even become slightly unsettling.
