The Pacific Ocean did not want Thomas Ruyant! “Le Souffle du Nord pour Le Projet Imagine” will not see the Sables d’Olonne. Flight of the Hummingbird yellow symbol of expensive NGO Frédérique Bedos was completed after 44 days of racing and adventure in a small port in the south of New Zealand, midway of the World Tour so dreamed of and so well prepared.
The skipper from Malo les Bains “became like a skin,” as the founders, throughout the 12,000 miles travelled. 8th at the time of collision with a unidentified floating object (UFO), it proved an incisive competitor, a winner insatiable. Faced with the accumulation of serious damage, he flaunts unsuspected resources. Neither wind nor the sea, nor the accumulation of misfortunes could snatch the slightest complaint, the slightest resentment. This is a waste of our consumer society that under the most likely form of a container, a “box” which by inflicting irreversible damage to its boat, was finally countered to abdicate, not without to the end, this respected profession marine he exercises with passion.
Admirable
In absolute survival, Thomas brought his boat ashore. Master until the last edge of his fate, he puts only the end to his adventure. The Vendée Globe serious his from one edition legend in passing and grief of men. Thomas falls, certainly in his heart reluctantly, at the forefront of this myth. He will not receive the homage of the Vendee. But his feat earned him tonight silent and respect the silent admiration of lovers of sea stories, 180 partners and more than 1,000 northerners supporters some of whom meet tonight at Lille with the ground team to share together, tight bends, the arrival of their marine safely, their “humble” hero.
Thomas first words down on the pontoon of the port of Bluff, south of New Zealand
” It’s brutal! Everything stops in an instant. When I woke up, thrown by the impact into the boat, I guessed it was very serious. I have not thought of one thing, save my boat. In my misfortune, I was close to inhabited coasts. I shudder to think what would have been my story if it had happened in the Pacific Ocean. For the first time, I actually felt unsafe. Approaching New Zealand, I have had up to 45 knots of wind! The water invaded the front compartment. I had my finger on the beacon, and I was about to trigger all. Past the peak south west of New Zealand, the sea and the wind died down, and I was rewarded with a lying extraordinary sun on New Zealand’s mountains, just for me. I have been torn between immense sadness and relief. I bring a seriously injured boat, my Vendée Globe is over and I will not go back the channel of Les Sables! But I was good in my race. Until impact, despite the accumulation of problems, I was running and I was already thinking to the Pacific where waiting for me rather mild conditions. Nothing prepares us for this, although we always thought there. The damage, the mechanical problem that grows abandoned. When this happens, it sounds you. It’s hard to believe. I am also in a state of extreme emotional fatigue and that prevents me from seeing things coolly. I feel sympathy around me. But it does not change my reality. The Vendée Globe is over for me. “
