I'm Maxime Sorel. I am skipper of the IMOCA V&V Mayenne. My best memory is of the 2014 Route du Rhum. It was my first single-handed transatlantic race and my first transatlantic race at all, and it was the moment of arrival, after the tour of Guadeloupe. It was a very complicated transatlantic race.
I'm a basic civil engineer, it wasn't my basic job to be an offshore racer. I had put my career on hold. I'd taken three months off late to be able to do this race. It was really a life project. I had put a lot of time and energy into creating this project. The finish phase was the realization of this project. At the moment of arrival, you feel satisfaction because you crossed the Atlantic single-handed. It's a first, we succeeded. And of course it's a huge joy to see our loved ones again, who are joining us in small boats close to the finish. It's a unique feeling and it took me several days or even weeks to get out of that ecstasy. I have the memory of arriving at the pontoon after crossing the line, of not wanting to get off the boat, of wanting it to continue, so I'm very happy to have arrived, but to tell myself that if I hit land, that's it: it stopped. That this feeling, because it's so unique, I might not be able to feel it again. It took me more than two hours to get off the boat and make landfall. After that there were lots of other very different joys, but this was the first one and it's a beautiful memory that will remain with me forever.
