2024-05-06 04:00:46
On board the “Belem”, May 3, 2024. VINCENT CURUTCHET / CAISSE D’EPARGNE
“All hands on deck, ready to maneuver!” » Suddenly, the sea took on a steel gray hue and blended in with the leaden sky. THE White suddenly his wood creaks, his ropes snap and the captain demands all the available hands. Remaining straight as an i since the start of the crossing, thanks to particularly mild weather, the three-masted ship has turned italic. Sailing with all sails hoisted is now written leaning, making the approaches exotic, crablike, sideways, skimming the walls, trying to hold on to anything that doesn’t move.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers How the Olympic flame is kept alive on board the “Belem”
Add to your selections
A tightrope walker in flip-flops, Kévin Gendarme, one of the three guardians of the flame, tries to hold his lantern perpendicular, under the first squall of the journey. On the wheelhouse side, at the rear of the boat, Captain Aymeric Gibet, cap on his head, looks delighted with this gust of wind synonymous with action. “We tripled our speed in ten minutes!” List at 12° to starboard, seas not too heavy, typical of the Mediterranean. »
It is May 2, it is 3 p.m., the ship, 60 miles from Naples, is moving at almost 8 knots, after having moved like a snail through technicolor scenery, the turquoise waters of the Corinth Canal, the crimson lava of Stromboli, then later in the night, blue Capri under the stars. The first tack of the crossing is looming, to avoid White to come dangerously close to the Italian coast.
Chili con carne with Marvin Gaye background
The transalpine frigates which accompanied the three-masted ship during its crossing of the Strait of Messina have disappeared. Only the tugboat of the national navy Seine keep watch within 2 miles. T-shirts swapped for oilskins, the whole crew meets in the large coachroof to listen to the brief while providing direct instruction from the captain. “We will have to turn around, which means to raise all the sails [changer leur orientation]. During the next three days, we will pull stretches towards the North alternating with the engine,” he explains, model of the boat in hand, before announcing: “Tonight, night shifts will be optional. »
On board the “Belem”, May 2, 2024. VINCENT CURUTCHET / CAISSE D’EPARGNE
The two OM fans, the Marseillais Houari Belkouane and Yassine Nassah, exult. For them, it is the possibility of watching intermittently, due to capricious Wi-Fi, their team’s match against Atalanta Bergamo in the semi-final first leg of the Europa League. In the morning, before the swell formed, they were both, like most of their comrades, up in the mast, experiencing the reality of the work of topmen. One of the moments most awaited by the sixteen young people in integration, “scouts” of the torch relay, renamed by some the lazy relay: on the 6th day of the crossing, a bit of wear appears.
You have 64.24% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
#board #Belem #Olympic #flame #unique #alchemy