“I get seasick, I don’t like it when it’s moving and I like dead calm!” The calm, this zone where the winds are absent, is the dread of any sailor in search of speed. No Charles Caudrelier, obviously. One of the current giants of offshore racing, winner of the 2022 Route du rhum, talks about this very special relationship with the sea of oil as he regularly breaks speed records at 45 knots on his trimaran giant Maxi Edmond de Rothschild. One of the many testimonies collected by Antoine Grenapin, author of Declarations of Love to the Sea (Editions Hugo Sport).
The author had accustomed his audience to stories about the heroes of ocean racing in the company of the faithful Dino Di Meo. This time, the competition remained attached to the pontoon. The author casts off to explore the intimate link between the oceans and all those who come into contact with them in one way or another on a daily basis or more sporadically but each time in an intense way. “It’s the most beautiful of kingdoms,” says the reporter, who has gone to meet numerous sailors and water sports champions known to the general public (Isabelle Autissier, Franck Cammas, Catherine Chabaud, Justine Dupont, Fançois Gabart, Loïck Peyron and many others) which occupy a nice place in the 238-page book.
Far from the world of competition, Antoine Grenapin handed his tape recorder to a crowd of personalities and anonymous people to obtain fifty testimonies and as many intimate relationships with the big blue sea. “I especially wanted to alternate between people who were known but also unknown to the general public. The idea was certainly not to obtain fifty testimonies telling the same thing. During my interviews, I never felt that way,” explains the reporter who worked for RTL, Le Point and Paris Match.
Among the most famous witnesses, we find for example the singer Laurent Voulzy, the actors Charles Berling and even François Damiens. The opportunity for the Belgian actor to reveal a little-known side of his personality. “I have fought all my life to try to be free and there is no better place to feel it than on a boat,” admits the comedian, a great admirer of skippers and who takes to the sea as soon as he can to disconnect.
The book takes detours with a writer (Erik Orsenna), a philosopher (Laurence Devillers), a former minister (Nicolas Hulot) among former glories of French sport like Bixente Lizarazu, lover of the ocean. “When my football career ended and I started my second life, I increased the number of diving trips and surfing road trips. Water sports helped me forge a strong bond with the ocean, they awakened my awareness and my love for nature and Polynesia,” explains “Liza”.
Boris Diaw decided to sail around the world after his career as a basketball player in the NBA. “A magical meeting because for thirty years, he was told what to eat, what time he had to go to bed and wake up to take the plane to play matches… And he confides today that the best The only place he is in the world is on his boat, alone.” So isolated that the giant willingly cuts itself off from its peers for long periods of time. “It was complicated to get him because he doesn’t look at his smartphone,” Grenapin admits with a smile,
The illustrated work also takes the reader off the beaten track towards unusual horizons. The salt of the work without a doubt. We set off into the open ocean on the deck of the aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle in the company of Sébastien Martinot, former commander of this flagship of the French Navy, “a man who has the sea in his heart”, insists the author. We return to earth in the company of Serge Coatmeur, a solitary lighthouse keeper who lived for forty years with his eyes fixed on the ocean, “a man alone and isolated but connected because he dedicated his life to protecting others”, before installed in the kitchens of star chef Christopher Coutanceau. We also stop at the small workshop of Dominique Abraham who dedicated his life to painting the sea and nothing but the sea or in the studio of Molécule, the artist who dreamed of “putting the storm to music” after having spent more than ‘a month in a trawler in Greenland.
The sea as a source of inspiration but also as a subject of study with a famous explorer Jean-Louis Etienne, scientists of all kinds, whether they are biologists, meteorologists or even oceanographers, like Véronique Sarano. This woman has dedicated her life to sperm whales for ten years after being part of the adventure of Commander Cousteau’s expeditions. “She follows these cetaceans that she sees every year like a family, knows their names, the mothers with their young, understands all their social interactions. A fascinating dive into the world of animal intelligence”, describes the author of this unifying collection because “no one can remain indifferent to the spectacle of the sea”, he confides, before concluding: “We have all a particular relationship with this element. Beauty always comes out of it, quite simply. And like anything that is beautiful, we must fight for its preservation. If there were to be a common denominator among these fifty testimonies, it could be that.”
Declarations of love to the sea, Antoine Grenapin, Hugo Sport, €24.95.