Perched on a helicopter or crouched in a Zodiac, his camera screwed to his cornea, Jean-Marie Liot fetches images 200 days a year from the four corners of the seas, and returns with beautiful stories that he can't tell them all. For the past 30 years, he has been looking through his lens at the sailboats and skippers of the Vendée Globe.
Today we're developing one of his photos from the 2008/2009 edition, which you'll never see on the cover of a magazine, and that's a shame. It shows Vincent Riou, Jean Le Cam and Isabelle Autissier grilling sausages in Tierra del Fuego, in front of the Beagle Channel. They look very relaxed, yet Vincent has just broken his boat saving Jean, who had capsized. Jean-Marie Liot has just immortalized this rescue while covering Michel Desjoyeaux's passage around Cape Horn. Isabelle has nothing to do with all this, but it just so happens that this is where she anchored her expedition sailboat, and she takes the opportunity to say hello to her friends.
This strange crew is enjoying the joys of local life: vino de Mendoza, asado on the parilla, and Quilmes to cool things off. An unexpected barbecue at a local guy's place. Just like home, but at the bottom of the world.
The story behind this image
In 2009, Michel Desjoyeaux missed the start of the Vendée Globe due to a power failure, and was announced on the line 40 hours late, worse than a Paris-Nice TGV on Christmas Eve. Not enough to stress "the professor", who made his way from the back of the train to the locomotive, overtaking each carriage one by one, to arrive at his destination in Les Sables d'Olonne station ahead of everyone else, well before anyone was expecting him. A feat that a Paris-Nice TGV would never achieve... On the way, Michel passes Cape Horn station, on the southern tip of South America.
Photographer Jean-Marie Liot thought it would be fun to take a photo of Michel as he rounded Cape Horn. And as Jean-Marie does what he says, he goes, supported by his photo agency at the time. Philippe Joubin, a journalist with L'Équipe, went with him. Nobody asked them to do anything, but that's the beauty of their profession: they impose their luck, serve their happiness, go towards their risk, and in the worst case scenario, they'll have had a great trip.
Cape Horn by night
Jean-Marie and Philippe land in Patagonia, determined to catch Michel at Cape Horn. But Michel had activated his rocket mode and passed the mythical rock at night. The disappointment was short-lived, however, as the next day Jean-Marie caught him under spinnaker at the tip of the Land of Fire, in Le Maire Strait, just before the Isle of the States. Michel strikes a pose, even making a heart with his hands, and flies off to victory. Fly, Michel, fly! Never mind the gloomy Cape Horn, the images from the Le Maire Channel are dazzling.
The unpleasant surprise
Jean-Marie booked the cheapest round-trip flights, which meant he had to stay in the area for 17 days. Normally, he would have been sightseeing, exploring the Perito Moreno and photographing breeding whales, but Jean Le Cam's boat hit a UFO on the approach to Cape Horn. The keel broke, the IMOCA capsized, and it was Vincent Riou who recovered Jean. The Chilean army offers Jean-Marie and Philippe a ride on the plane that's going to meet them. Jean-Marie first captures Jean's wreck, then Vincent and Jean aboard PRB. They then rounded Cape Horn hand-in-hand, relieved to be alive.
Over-accidents
But alas, the joy was short-lived as PRB dismasted: it was the maneuver to save Jean Le Cam that proved fatal, as while passing alongside Jean's IMOCA, PRB's outrigger got caught in the overturned boat's rudder. They repaired, but 8 miles later, the outrigger gave way and the mast fell. The sadness is endless, but once again, everyone is alive. The two wingless sailors land on the small Chilean island of Puerto Williams. Jean-Marie and Philippe join them, and Isabelle Autissier makes her appearance. Aboard her sailboat Ada 2, she takes in the Bretons, comforts them and offers them an enchanted interlude in the disjointed hell of their Cape Horn. Together, they remake the match, the world and all the SHOM charts, and meet again on a fine January afternoon, around a barbecue of sausages grilled on fire ground... just like at home, but at the bottom of the world.
When Jean-Marie Liot recalls this memory, which he exhumes over the phone as he drives towards his eighth Vendée Globe, he confides: "Philippe Joubin and I each have this in the back of our minds, it's a moment we shared, it's a memory we like to evoke, and it will remain one of the Vendée Globe's that has left the biggest mark on me." We understand, and we thank him for sharing it with us.
