It is a perfect morning for Sam Davies’ to transit the channel back to the marina which she left on November 9th 2008. The sun has just risen and is starting to elevate the temperatures slightly after a very chilly night. People have been moving around since 5 and 6 in the morning here to book their best vantage point to pay their tributes to Sam Davies and welcome her back. The flags around the Vendee Globe regatta village are scarcely lifting in a light breeze and already the huge sound system in the village is cranking out the music.
The official number of people out to greet Sam is ‘……a lot’ …they are four or five deep along the whole channel and the narrow waterway is chock a block with boats, and every so often Roxy comes to a halt just due to the volume of traffic. It is like the Pied Piper with a long train of boats of all shapes and sizes following the polka dot Open 60 down the canal.
Sam Davies’ press conference proved all encompassing in both French and English. It would seem that her great communication skills and joie de vie simply inspired the media to see what more they could learn about Sam. She answered endless questions with typical humour and patience.
How was she affected when other skippers pulled out with damage?
“Even after the start on the Day 2 after the 3 boats dismasted I slowed down for sure and I noticed the whole fleet did, and it brings home how fragile we are and there are many things beyond our control, and it takes on e thing to go wrong and the whole race is over, and when something happens to someone else you imagine it to yourself in the situation. Normally we don’t think about things going wrong, because if you thought about that you’d be scared and you’d never do this race, so it’s a rare moment when you think about that and put yourself in that situation because it’s quite scary.”
Happy with her overall race strategy?
“ I’m really happy, I really wanted to sail a kind of clever race and not take any risks that was my big objective, and I think that very few mistakes that I made and I’m proud of that, the one thing that I could have done better was go with Marco west of the Azores High and looking back on that I never would have done it because it was a bigger risk and Marco wasn’t a threat to me and Brian was, and so staying between Pindar and the finish was a better thing to do.”
Three Brits in the top 6 and four set to finish from seven starters?
“This is huge for Britain. First I think I should pay tribute to Mike Golding for his performance. Even if he’s not there at the finish, he had an incredible race and was in the lead. When I saw what he did I told myself I wanted to sail like that in four years time. It’s sad that Alex wasn’t able to show his potential. The Brit Pack is proud and we send each other messages. Dee is the champion at sending jokes. We’re proud of our performance. The Brits are getting 4th,5th and 6th. In four years time, maybe the order will be reversed.”
“Not bad heh? Watch out the French we’re coming!