We’ve had a difficult night on board the noisy motorised trimaran Ocean Alchemist, rocked by the big sea swell coming at us all 6 hours of the voyage made at a steady 20 knots. The wind being locked north-west, our first decision had been to make the kitesurf crossing from England to France.
Marc Gondard got the big relay us underway, on the water with the sun barely appearing over the horizon. An emotional moment, all of us aware of the symbolism. For the first part of the trip everything goes like clockwork, although riding such a big swell is a bit delicate, we ‘re making very good average speed.
3h30 later, first big drama. We’ve just entered the first part of the shipping lanes, the one taking big supertankers and petrol carriers to the Atlantic, when the wind dies all of a sudden after a little shower. Manu, who is on the water at the time, tries everything he knows to keep the kite in the sky but to no avail, and it comes down trailing edge first on the water, immobilised.
On board the tension mounts quickly. Eyes are fixed on the radar screen. We can’t stay here, there are mountains of steel likely to descend on us at 20 knots any minute. The situation is getting critical. Need to take a decision now!
And that’s the moment when Seb dived out of nowhere and into the water from the upper deck. Second drama. We now have 2 men in the water, we can only see them every now and then in the huge swell and who it’s going to be very difficult to recover.
The Kersauson crew aren’t standing for any nonsense though. For experienced sailors like them one man overboard is bad enough, never mind two… Between them all they recover the kite and re-launch Manu, but not for long…
An hour later, just after crossing the other shipping lane and passed the relay to Marc, the kite dies a second time for lack of wind, and never gets airborn again…"
Christo
