Kito and Seb and their cows hit the floor in a land of sheep!

They’re never apart! There’s the race and the story that goes on within the race: that of Groupe Bel and Estrella Damm, which have been fighting relentlessly since Barcelona. They have sailed more than 13,000 miles, one in the wake of the other, and with only one minute separating them as came alongside! Nothing could be more unusual for the four sailors than to find themselves in the early hours of the morning on the same pontoon on the other side of the world.

Thirty minutes after the arrival of Groupe Bel in Wellington, the gennaker and the breeze spinnaker were on their way to the airport, heading for the North Sails floor in Auckland! This is a real challenge, since a sail cannot be replaced by another. Only the repair of 60% of the total surface of the sail is authorized. In the meantime, on board, they are counting the minutes more than ever. For Kito and Seb, after a small jobs session in the New Zealand sunshine, it will be time for breakfast, a shower, or even a well-earned nap. It is not easy after 50 days alone at sea to draw up a list of “priorities on shore”!

Kito de Pavant: “It’s a little hard to stop, because we are still racing. We chose to stop over to repair the sails, which are very important for the rest of the race. It is difficult, but there’s the pleasure of seeing the team again and recharging our batteries before we set sail again. We’ll stick by our choice to the very end. Estrella Damm passed ahead of us this morning, but we arrived together. It’s strange to arrive within one minute of each other. This means we will leave together. We are going to continue the fight between the red boats!
Psychologically, it’s complicated, since the race continues, while we’re ashore; but that should motivate us! The whole team is already working on the boat. The priority is the repair of the sails which left by car for the airport, direction Auckland with Yann Regniaud (North Sails sails specialist from France) who is managing operations. The aim is to be back within 48 hours! These are incredible logistics. We are going to do small jobs on the boat for most of the day and then we will take our first shower in 50 days! We are not so keen to go for a sleep, since, in the end, we are not really in need of that much. The main thing is to organize the stopover from a technical point of view and afterwards we will try to forget the boat a little.
After Gibraltar, we saw an island near the Canaries, but otherwise no land. Yesterday, at Cape Farewell, it was magical! The landscape was really stunning. My thanks go out to all of those supporting us, who send us all those messages!”

Seb Audigane: “Stopping is a necessary delay, since we will be setting sail with Groupe Bel back to her full potential, that’s the main thing! We really missed the gennaker, particularly in the Indian Ocean. We were frustrated not to have the right canvas. This stopover is very important for the rest of this round-the-world in terms of performance. We will be returning to the race 100%, maybe even 120%! For the moment, all I really want to do is to set sail again, although taking a shower will probably do me good. I don’t think that we’ll manage to sleep, since we have got used to our watch rhythm.
I always seem to sail to New Zealand in specific circumstances. The last time was in 2008, after we capsized on board Groupama 3 during the Trophée Jules Verne. I remember we were all very happy to land here. It’s a very welcoming country and the people are really friendly! It is a land of sailors and the population sails a lot. I hope to come back here on holiday the next time!”