Tuesday 25 september

It has been 3 days since the Minis left La Rochelle. After a Force 7 during the first 48 hours, the skippers faced a lack of wind. The sailors did encounter extreme conditions in a really short period of time.

Hervé is today in 6t position. It seems that today the wind will come back. This is good because in the conditions encountered, it is really difficult to leave the helm. However, you need some time to rest (even 20 minutes) . And this is why some time the skippers lose some places.

The avaries are quite important. 3 boats have yet dismasted ( Paul Peggs and Roland Guerin ) but as Denis Hugues, the director of the race says: A boat leaves with a maximum of potential, and then she destroys herself slowly.

With Hervé, we prepared for the length of the race, differents texts about some frequently asked questions. After the strategy, here is now something about the SEA SICKNESS.

Everybody can become sea sick but it is very often a sickness that the skippers hide as if it was a very disgraceful sickness. Actually there is a really scientific explanation that Dr Chauve gives in his book “Instants de Vie” on the skippers of the Vendée Globe:

“The best way to fight this phenomenon is to understand it. There is therefore a simple explanation which will certainly not satisfy the specialist even if it is very near to the truth. The evolution from monkey to man went through a decisive phase when man started to stand. However this position was acquired only after the development of a control system of balance particularly performance. There are also some other less important cultural systems where the eyes, the muscles and certain ligaments play an important role.
In order to imagine the action of the receptors of the balance of the internal ear, we can compare them to a builder’s spirit level. This level is made of small bubbles moving in the tube full of water. The level is horizontal when the bubble is in the middle of the tube.
When we move, the bubble is moving as well due to the movements of the body also moves in the bulb. If we imagine that inside this bulb are a lot of minuscule electrodes, when it moves the bubble touches some of them which record this contact and transmit this to the brain via the nerves.
Therefore thanks to the movement of the bubbles (they are in each ear three bulbs) the brain receives permanently information on the position of the body. Some other information on the situation of the body in space also comes to the brain from other receptors as described before (eyes, muscles, etc.). Working then as a computer, the brain integrates all this data, quantifies it and compares it instantly and without even being aware of it the brain sends orders of contraction or relaxation to some muscles which will in almost every case prevent the body falling.
The functioning of this system is very long and complex as standing is a perpetual provocation to the rules of balance and gravity.
But when you are at sea, everything is more complicated as the ground is not a stable reference but more a perpetual movement. Even when you are in a fixed position (like when sitting down or lying) the body moves all the time and accompanies the boat’s movements. As a consequence, the bubbles are moving, the electrodes of the bulb inform the brain that there is a movement. At the same time, the other receptors indicate that the body is motionless on the seat or on the berth. Whom should the brain believe? This is a real headache for the brain which is confronted with these unexpected contradictions. It is impossible for it to elaborate a consistent answer to maintain the verticality of the body, especially when the muscles are having a rest and are generally relaxed. During this time, the bubbles continue to stimulate the electrodes of the bulb which sends with consistency nervous information to the brain which really doesn’t know what to do with it. The nervous charges increasing there is something that needs to be done to get rid of it. No other choice than to use the CTZ “chemo-receptive Trigger Zone” which in exiting the centre of vomiting triggers its answer which is sometimes shy sometimes enthusiastic.
Then after a while, the brain adapts itself by not considering information coming from the bubbles as significant. This is a relief when the body gets accustomed to the sea movement. You can then live on board without choking”.

Does Herve suffer from sea sickness? Usually, he can stand it quite well but it also happens once when he was going around the Isle of Wight alone at night to find him lying over the leeward holding the life line…