Clarisse Cremer - first woman to finish Vendee - breaks Ellen McArthur record

News - Some highlights of Clarisse Cremer's Press Conference - Vendée Globe - En

12th place Race time: 87d 02h 24m 25s  Thirteen boats still racing

Clarisse Cremer, 12th on the Vendee Globe, said the key objective has been achieved, finishing the race. She received a message from Ellen MacArthur congratulating her on her race which she said she was more excited about than her 12th place or being first woman! Here are a few snippets of Clarisse Press Conference which available on replay on the social media channels. 

Your knowledge and relationship with your boat?
When I started sailing with this boat in July 2019 I did not have much time to learn this boat but many other sailors on this Vendée Globe did not really know their boats much better than I did. But there is nothing to replace spending so much time solo on the boat in demanding race conditions. At the start I would not say that myself and the boat were in any kind of fusion, I was quite scared of this big machine, but now sometimes I feel it is not that big any more, you get accustomed to it and find your marks. But technically I still have a lot to learn and that was what required the most psychological work for me accept I could not master everything. I still have elements missing and am not up to a level with my boat. I would like to know it better still.

How was the finish?
The finish is filled with so many emotions because you are always worried about not finishing, all the time it is in your mind. When it is finished and when you succeed it I a lot of pressure gone away. And the Channel, well it was a big shock!

Are you proud?
Yes I am proud to have managed to look after the boat from the beginning and to finish. But now I am realising with three months of experience now I realise how I did not know how to do everything on board at the start, even if I was prepared. It is a pleasant feeling to know you have mastered the subject, that you mastered your boat but I am still fascinated by these boats. This morning I was in 40kts and I was nor even afraid, these beasts are made to go around the world, they are fascinating machines, objects and so there is a pride in having brought it and myself back safely and correctly.

On Ellen MacArthur’s record and her message?  
It is true that I beat her record, but the record was 20 years ago and they are two completely different editions of the Vendée Globe the boats are completely different, the length of the race we saw this time is not representative of the intensity of the race and what skippers are able to do. And so yes I am happy, it is fun this sentence ‘the fastest woman around the world on a monohull in solo sailing’ but it is an additional thing which is fun, but to have a message from Ellen MacArthur that is really something big for me.

12th or the first woman, what is more important?
The number 12th is not that important, the goal was to finish the Vendée Globe. Having finished in full race mode and having sailed well and the fact of being the first woman that is just the cherry on the top. We are not very numerous and yes people speak about us more because as the first woman it highlights the project. But on the water I never tell myself anything is different because I am a woman. I have a boat and if competitors are men or women I don’t think about it on the water, yes it is a subject we end up talking about a lot, but it does not affect the way I race at all. Being the first woman is good, but it was never my first objective and my thoughts are still with the women who are still on the water and others who we expected great positions from, Sam and Isa who were not lucky and had damage, but to have the courage to set sail again and finish the course.

 

The Owl by Edward Thomas | Poem of the week: | The Guardian

A tawny owl Photograph: FLPA/Alamy

Poem of the week: The Owl by Edward Thomas | Books | The Guardian

Selected by Carol Rumens

The Owl

Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved;
Cold, yet had heat within me that was proof
Against the North wind; tired, yet so that rest
Had seemed the sweetest thing under a roof.

Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest,
Knowing how hungry, cold, and tired was I.
All of the night was quite barred out except
An owl’s cry, a most melancholy cry

Shaken out long and clear upon the hill,
No merry note, nor cause of merriment,
But one telling me plain what I escaped
And others could not, that night, as in I went.

And salted was my food, and my repose,
Salted and sobered, too, by the bird’s voice
Speaking for all who lay under the stars,
Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.

Edward Thomas (1878-1917) is among my favourite poets, one of those whose revelations never become predictable (Emily Dickinson is another). Thomas, perhaps more stealthily, regularly delivers a surprise, a lyric poem which, if it were a gift, would be wrapped in honest, glitter-free brown paper. You open the parcel to find a poem which is so unexpectedly truthful and nuanced it suddenly seems hair-raising. The Thrush was the last Thomas poem featured here: this time, it’s The Owl.