Isabelle Joschke (MACSF) has completed her round-the-world outside the race
The French skipper of MACSF Isabelle Joschke who was forced out of the Vendée Globe on January 9th due to a keel ram failure on her IMOCA 60 has completed her round the world passage today out of the race when she sailed back into Les Sables d’Olonne today 107 days 21 hours after the race start on November 8th. She made a 10 day technical stop in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil to consolidate the keel problem with her technical team. The 43 year old Franco-German skipper has shown great determination to ‘close the loop’ and finish her first ever circumnavigation. She passed the Nouche Sud buoy at 10:34hrs UTC this morning
Alain Gautier: "Isabelle had the potential to finish very well".
INTERVIEW
This is the final stretch for Isa, have you heard from her? How is she doing?
Alain Gautier : " We must be careful with this home straight because there can still be problem. It was windy last night, there are cargo ships, she crossed the Cape Finisterre TSS and I think the night was not very restful. But she had been resting for the last few days".
Isabelle Joschke expected in Les Sables d'Olonne Around Midday Wednesday
Today very much marks the home straight for MACSF skipper Isabelle Joschke who is into the Bay of Biscay after a windy night passing Cape Finisterre, a passage that was, as usual, made more challenging by the presence of marine traffic close to the TSS. But now ‘Isa’ has a direct run back to the barn, some 250 miles ahead of her, on starboard tack in a breeze which will ease progressively.
Nearly every Vendée Globe, including this ninth edition, has delivered a sting in the tail of one sort or another to unfortunate solo skippers. While the most damaging this time was Boris Herrmann’s collision with a Spanish fishing boat at 90 miles from the finish line, the last miles are often the most tense, as the most recent finisher Manu Cousin noted last Saturday morning:
“At about 40 miles to the finish I had a moment where I finally felt I would make it and could finally release myself and enjoy knowing what I was accomplishing.” He grinned on the dock on Port Olona two days ago.
Manu Cousin ' I am so proud to be part of this family'
It was an overjoyed, expansive Manuel Cousin who crossed the finish line today in 23rd place before enjoying a rousing welcome back to his adopted home town of Les Sables d'Olonne. This is the best of of Manu at his press conference... How do you feel Manu?
I feel so happy to have crossed that finish line, to have come up this famous channel. Honestly, I hardly dared think about it before now because there were times I was good and then hard times would come and I wondered if I would make it.
