Athens, Saturday, June 18, 12:10: after 13 days and nights of rowing, 24 hours a day, or 320 cumulative hours to cover the 1800km from Monaco with the only force of the arms, our 6 Waterwomen of CAP OPTIMIST Itziar ABASCAL, Marie GOYENECHE, Emmanuelle BESCHERON, Margot CALVET, Alexandra LUX and Stéphanie GEYER-BARNEIX set foot on land at the port of Piraeus (Athens – Greece).
It is under a thunder of applause and a huge wave of emotion that the young hopeful Marie GOYENECHE, last relay of this expedition, exhausted but shot with adrenaline, crossed, or more precisely “flew over”, the finish line at 12:00 am sharp, under the eyes ofAnnika Horn, daughter of Mike Horn, project partner and Cap Optimist ambassador.
During this Mediterranean crossing, our athletes, all of whom have won titles in international competitions, experienced epic conditions throughout the journey. They endured some nice storms and thunderstorms, faced periods of swell of more than 2 meters, headwinds and had some unexpected encounters with a shark.
These extraordinary conditions have certainly put a strain on the morale of the sportswomen but has allowed to highlight a excellent team cohesion, both among themselves and with the crew, an important and determining factor for the smooth running of the final project this winter: to join Peru to French Polynesia, 8000 km this time.
As a reminder, the objective of our new sports challenge, in aid of the Hope Team East association, is to raise funds to help children undergoing treatment for serious illnesses and to integrate sports into their daily lives. This sporting event will be accompanied by medical, scientific and educational research.
This test expedition #2 is the final rehearsal before the departure and has allowed the waterwomen to identify no less than 90 points of improvement to optimize their performance: pacing versus resting, passing of relays, feeding, equipment, safety protocol… They knew how to acclimatize and learn throughout the expedition in the smallest details:
- the night rowing and its COMPLEX lighting, fear of loneliness and stress in the dark, self control…
- the changes of boards to maintain their stability in the face of numerous weather conditions
- the maneuvering and adapting the speed of the boat so that it can follow the rower as well as possible
- The sleep rhythms adapted according to the needs of each one interspersed by the relays
- The emergency protocol and rescue drills rescue exercises if you need to recover a rower in distress
- The rotation changes At the beginning, the girls were in relay 24 hours a day, but later they adapted a rhythm that allows each one to take a half-day break
- The setting up of a decompression chamber to evacuate the overflow of emotions and the good progress of the expedition
- Food on the boat very important, tastes can change at sea, it is also necessary to think about specific individual equipment.
See you in January 2023 for the big departurebut in the meantime continue to follow the evolution of the project on www.capoptimist.com
Hope Team East and Cap Optimist would like to sincerely thank H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, sponsor of the expedition, the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation, the Hellenic community of Monaco, Minister Yannis Plakiotakis, the Piraeus Yacht Club, Sophia and Kostantinos Tsouvelekakis as well as all the volunteers.