The “marsupilami-therapy” technique by Jean-Luc Nélias

We’ve also passed the Greenwich Meridian which means we are in a cottony, grey, cold and humid territory of albatrosses and other giant petrels.

What I like is the padding. Bilou and I have had to adapt our clothing. After summer outfits, we have now emptied our personal bags (weighing about 10kg each) to make an incredible inventory of clothes: two pairs of boots, a fluorescent bobble hat, two short thermal shorts, four fleece jumpers, 4 pairs of trousers, a dry suit, 4 pairs of gloves, a surf helmet, a light jacket, fluffy socks…

All these clothes have been designed at Tregun, in Brittany, and are made from technical materials that are supposed to make the cold and the humidity almost bearable. Onboard, humidity is close to 100%. The water condenses on every surface and I don’t recommend putting your head down on a wet pillow to get some shut-eye - dreams of mermaids are not on the cards.

NASA STYLE

For 40 days, nothing is going to dry. So we are carefully managing our changes of clothes. There is only one saving grace: the hot air of the engine (used to produce energy for onboard equipment). The technique called “marsupilami-therapy” involves connecting a flexible pipe to the hot air extraction and directing the airflow to wherever you want: one or both boots, your shirt, or your trousers.
But there is a problem: on a racing boat, the lighter we are, the faster we go. The less diesel we board for the engine that recharges the batteries, the better we move forward.

We developed systems for loading and for batteries that would make NASA proud! They allow us to run the engine 90 minutes a day. But for drying underwear - it doesn’t work. I’ve been watching the birds flying around us and I think they’ve got the right idea not wearing any!!

The "Pauvres Rescapés Bretons" (PRB: name of Vincent Riou and Sébastien Josse’s boat leading the race since the start and who broke part of the mast on Saturday) have had enough of the south. The unfortunate dismasting means that they have abandoned the bobsleigh track on which we have now launched ourselves. They will return to the austral summer of Cape Town. Hawaiian shirts and khaki shorts will be coming out of their bags faster than planned. Better luck next time Vince and Jojo… The PRB incident means we are now in second position but we were actively planning our move on the two leaders (Paprec-Vibrac II and PRB) for the end of the week. Favourable winds meant we reduced their lead to 80 miles. Without throwing anything of particular importance overboard!! Jean-Luc Nélias

Jean-Luc Nélias
"Le Monde" December 11th, 2007