When a sailor tells us his race, there is often the preparation, the start, the race anecdotes and finally the finish. A story, a chronological account. With Fabrice Amedeo's book, "Alone facing the sea", I was expecting this: an account of his adventure during his participation in the Vendée Globe 2016-17.
But I should have read the subtitle"My Vendée Globe in 100 words" better. Fabrice Amedeo decided to tell his adventure by taking a word for each chapter. 100 words which punctuate the book, 100 words classified in alphabetical order. And it was that ranking that bothered me.
Indeed, without transition you pass from"Ecuador" with the heat which is described and the problem of lack of wind of this zone, with the chapter"Cold" which catapults you in full Indian Ocean with the storms and the temperature which does not rise more than 5°..
In the end, the whole Vendée Globe, from its preparation to the finish line, is well told: the meetings that made it possible to set up the project, the exchanges at sea between sailors or with the people on land, the technical problems and the solutions put in place... we find all these stories in the book. But alas for me, I had trouble hanging on to stay in the story.
For the anecdotes, the little stories that make a great adventure you have to go through the whole book. For example, go to the letter S to find out that Fabrice Amedeo had rudder problems that stressed him during the second half of the trip. Go to the letter R to discover in a chapter entitled Regret, that his mainsail was torn by an excess of caution while being slumped down, punctured by a pocket of water.
This solution of summarising his Vendée Globe in 100 words (almost one per day since it took him 103 days to return to Les Sables-d'Olonne) is a very good idea. Short chapters can be read with pleasure. But I find this alphabetical classification inappropriate for the fluidity of the book. Too bad this sailor's adventure, will and success are so beautiful.
Alone facing the sea - Fabrice Amedeo
- Glénat Publishing
- 214 pages
- 13.9 x 22.5 cm
- 19,99 €
