Cooking food, taking a breather, sleeping – everything that happens so naturally in normal life is a whole lot more complicated for Boris Herrmann on his “Malizia-Seaexplorer”. However, after the start of the Vendée Globe and initial technical problems, the German extreme sailor now seems to be finding his way around better – and is catching up. On Tuesday, Herrmann made it into the first third of the 40 participants, and on Wednesday afternoon German time he was in eighth place.
There was a situation like this shortly after take-off when Herrmann identified problems with the boat’s controls and sorted them out with the help of telephone tips from the technical crew on land. “It’s good again now,” he said happily afterwards and started to catch up. The sailors have now passed Cape Finisterre in northwestern Spain. The Frenchman Yoann Richomme was leading on Wednesday afternoon ahead of his compatriot Charlie Dalin and the Briton Sam Goodchild.
:To the gates of hell
Icebergs, loneliness and roaring winds: the Vendée Globe is one of the last great adventures of our time. One of the crazy people: sailor Boris Herrmann. This time he is one of the favorites to sail around the world.
“These things that are normal and simple on land are sometimes not so easy on board,” said Herrmann, who has to plan every step on his 18-meter-long yacht in the solo race around the world. On the first of around 80 days at sea, the 43-year-old father needs to establish a rhythm with which he can cope with the high level of stress. “I have a bit of a headache and haven’t slept much. “I find it intense, but that’s what I expected,” Herrmann reported after the first, rather rough night on the water. He lies down in his bunk for hours at a time – his headphones, which protect him from the noisy boat noises, secured with a headband. And gain fresh strength for the next few hours, which always bring unforeseeable challenges.
The gaps continue to be small in the race, which is also known as the “Mount Everest of sailing”. Their path, which harbors many dangers, takes the skippers 45,000 kilometers around the world – Herrmann and his competitors are still at the very beginning of their adventure. Herrmann, who fell back to fifth place in 2021 after a collision with a fishing boat shortly before the finish, is considered one of the favorites to win.
