Suddenly, deliverance. Finally, the Grail. On Tuesday, January 14, at 8:24 am, at the first light of dawn and after 64 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes and 49 seconds at sea, Charlie Dalin, aboard the Macif-Santรฉ-Prรฉvoyance, won the 10th edition of the Vendรฉe Globe, a 45,000-kilometer non-stop, non-assisted single-handed round-the-world race, which, every four years, starts and ends in Les Sables-d’Olonne, on the Atlantic coast of western France. He was more than nine days faster than the previous record of 74 days, 3 hours and 35 minutes, set by Armel Le Clรฉac’h during the 2016-2017 edition.
The last few nautical miles seemed all the more unending to the 40-year-old sailor from Normandy, as he swallowed them at night on his blue and green monohull, in light airs and sub-zero temperatures. To reach the finish line, he rounded a windless zone to the north and began a slow descent along the Brittany coast.
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