Justine Mettraux celebrated with timpani and trumpets

Vendée Globe

The fastest woman in the Vendée Globe was greeted by thousands of spectators in Les Sables d’Olonne. A gust of wind pushed her to the finish line as a final bouquet, so to speak.

“It’s quite possible that she’s crying this time,” speculated Catherine Chabaud two hours before Justine Mettraux entered the channel of Les Sables d’Olonne. The first woman to complete the Vendée Globe in 1997 was wrong in her assumption. Exhausted yet beaming, Justine kept her emotions under control throughout the arrival ceremony. Everything seems perfect on this January 25th. The sun breaks through the clouds and illuminates the sea of people. Thousands of spectators have come to give the first of the six women to start a fitting welcome. Justine crosses the finish line in 8th place and sets a new record of 76 days, 1 hour, 36 minutes and 52 seconds. No woman had ever been that fast before her. Justine made it exciting right to the end. She sailed the last 24 hours with a torn mainsail, with Sam Goodchild hot on her heels. In stormy conditions, the Geneva-based native crossed the line ahead of the Brit, but the ordeal was not over yet.

She had to mobilize her last reserves to reach the channel before 3.30 pm. “I had no idea when I would be allowed to enter the harbor, I was focused on the finish line” she confessed later. Her team intervened, jumped on board and took matters into their own hands. Justine thanks them with a large banner, which she holds up in the canal. “Thanks to my team” is written on it. Countless Swiss fans are waiting in the harbor. Cheering, they wave red flags with a white cross. Philippe Rey-Gorrez, head of TeamWork and partner from the very beginning, is also on the boat: “There was incredible euphoria in the canal,” he says. “We all had a sinking feeling in our stomachs and reached our emotional limits. There were tears in our eyes.” Elodie-Jane and Laurane were also there. They have always supported their sister from afar during difficult times. As teenagers, they devoured Ellen MacArthur’s books together. With her time at the Vendée Globe, Justine Mettraux has equaled the record of 71 days set by Ellen MacArthur in the Jules Verne Trophy in 2005.

It’s 4 p.m. and Justine has solid ground under her feet again. She stands in front of a wall of microphones and cameras. “I don’t know if I’ve come back changed. But when you spend so much time at sea, you experience an incredible amount,” says the sailor, who otherwise reveals very little about herself. She immediately goes on to talk about the sporting aspects: “I made progress in terms of boat control, strategy and repairs, which are not usually my strengths. And I’ve gained a lot of experience.” Justine doesn’t reveal any more personal details. She behaves the same way on land as she does on the water: unperturbed, she does her thing. The end of the race was tough. “Not every skipper experiences the Vendée Globe in the same way,” says race director Hubert Lemonnier. A statement that fits the Atlantic journey of Justine Mettraux’s group like a glove.

It was a martyrdom. A few days before the finish, Justine experienced “the stormiest conditions of the regatta.” She sailed almost exclusively on the wind in the choppy sea of waves. The solo circumnavigation was no walk in the park technically either. The oldest IMOCA in the top 10 did not go easy on her skipper. Without her two antennas on the mast, Justine sometimes used the compass for orientation. Sometimes the autopilot didn’t take wind shifts into account. To make matters worse, the rudder blade had been locked in the lower position since November 24. This not only increased friction, but also the risk of collisions with flotsam. At 5pm Justine and Sam Goodchild give the traditional interview on the stage in the regatta village. The TeamWork and Team SNEF are tied up with double lines at the pier of honor. A heavy storm is expected in Les Sables d’Olonne. An hour later, Justine arrives in the press room to eat the hamburger she ordered from the organization. Her first meal ashore. She has just successfully completed the mental and physical tests. One floor up, the first gusts of wind sweep across the terrace. Vincent Riou, winner of the 2004 Vendée Globe, remembers the young trainee from the training center in Port-la-Forêt. She struck him as a “very serious, passionate and determined girl”.

She made a similar impression on Alain Gautier. He took part in a regatta with her in the Figaro. “She fought for every centimetre,” says the 1993 winner. Isabelle Autissier, the first woman to sail around the world single-handed, travelled to Les Sables d’Olonne for the finish. “She’s a great sailor,” she says of Justine. “She has a lot of experience and yet she’s not out of her depth. And she is very focused and very calm.”

7 pm. The predicted storm is stronger than expected. It has devastated the regatta village. Advertising boards fly through the air, the spectators are evacuated. The teams join forces to pull the IMOCA from the jetties.

The Bay of Biscay, which it had graciously allowed to pass through shortly before, welcomes the birth of a starfish in its own way.