The first shock was deep, as documented by the worry lines on Fabrice Amedeo’s face. A selfie shows the French sailor in the middle of the Atlantic, somewhere far out west, where the waves played yo-yo with his yacht – until fate presented him with a tremendous challenge.
In the end, hours after he took his selfie in a survival suit, the 44-year-old narrowly escaped one of those disasters when what seafarers fear most happened to him: his boat caught fire and sank. Amedeo owes the fact that he is still alive to a spectacular rescue.
His first message to the world was via Instagram: “I’m alive and well on a freighter that will drop me off in the Azores tomorrow morning. My Imoca Nexans – Art and Windows burst into flames before my eyes. All my dreams went down with my ship.”
Hundreds of liters of water penetrate, then something explodes, the electronics fail
The sailing professional previously worked as a journalist for the newspaper Le Figaro and who also loves adventures at sea, was one of the 138 courageous people who embarked on the transatlantic regatta “Route du Rhum” from the coast of Brittany towards the Caribbean. 3,500 kilometers to Guadeloupe, alone in a boat that is technologically well equipped, but not invulnerable to the forces of nature. A burst water ballast tank was fatal to the political reporter, who twice sailed the infamous Vendée Globe around the world.
Fabrice Amedeo, here on board his Imoca “Newrest-Art et Fenêtres” (name at the time), at the start of the Vendée Globe 2020 – even then he had to give up due to technical problems.
(Photo: Alexis Courcoux/Imago)
Two days ago, without him noticing, the water flooded the hull of his boat. He had just “flown” hard through wind and waves on heavy seas, he later said, when he realized “that my ballast exploded on a wave and that I have several hundred liters of water in the boat.” He stopped driving and emptied the interior, but at that moment the “batteries were damaged by the water.” The power went out and with it all the electronics. No autopilot, no computer, only emergency operation. In consultation with his team, the only option was the cautious return journey towards mainland Portugal.
But he didn’t even come close to the port of Cascais near Lisbon he was targeting. After a few hours, on Sunday afternoon, there was a fire on board, the fuses had blown somewhere because of the electronic blackout, another explosion, hissing water fountains. Amedeo gathered his things together, just in time grabbed his wedding ring and tried the fire extinguisher. Vain. Then he got into his bright red swimming suit and snapped the photo mentioned at the beginning. It was clear to him that he had to leave the ship and that evacuation was the last option. A jet of flame finally forced the solo sailor into the life raft in dire straits.
His description of the scenes sound like a catastrophe trill. “A stream of flames shoots out of the cabin and the cabin roof. I’m caught in the middle of the flames. I can’t even open my eyes. I manage to push the life raft into the water and jump.”
From there he watched his yacht sink within half an hour. Then waiting for his rescue, in the middle of the ocean. Another three hours later, a freighter belonging to the Maersk shipping company, which had been called by radio, fished him out of the raging sea. “Death didn’t want me today,” Amedeo summarized the drama, “I’m devastated, but I’m the happiest man because my wife and daughters don’t have to go to bed crying today.” Meanwhile, the race continues, with Boris Herrmann also a German – he experienced something similar on the Vendée last year when he collided with a fishing cutter. Dangers lurk everywhere at sea.
