After a magnificent sun and a sea of oil in the afternoon, the small ship made its entry around 7:00 p.m. in the port of Trébeurden in a thick heat haze.
His boat moored, Yann Quénet dismounted, barefoot, after a last navigation from the Azores which he had left on July 12.
Asked about the scope of his feat on a walnut shell, built in 400 hours, without an engine and without communication with the earth, he put the performance into perspective, explaining: «it was an old dream and I realized my dream “, before going to join his friends.
On its last miles, about twenty boats had escorted «Baluchon». Yann Quénet, bearded as usual, appeared smiling and relaxed. The torso emerging from the roof of his boat progressing «about three miles» towards the port, the sailor responded with constant placidity to the demands of the photographers as well as to the brief questions launched from a distance by the journalists embarked on other ships.
«A little sad» to see this world tour come to an end but «happy at the same time» to be back among his family, he conceded to AFP. «We will now start on new projects,» he promised.
Leaving in the spring of 2019, the young fifty-year-old crossed the Atlantic, then the Pacific to the Marquesas Islands. After Tahiti and New Caledonia, the sailor had planned to stop in New Zealand and Australia but the pandemic decided otherwise: due to border closures, «Baluchon» had to travel directly from Nouméa to in Reunion, i.e. 77 days at sea, skirting Australia from the north.
Challenge among the challenges in this long-distance crossing: food reserves and especially water. At each start, the cockpit was lined with cans of water in the middle of which Yann Quénet just found room to lie down. In the absence of a watermaker, «I rationed myself two liters of water a day», he specified during the trip.
Yann Quénet was to receive a visit on Wednesday from another great sailor, Olivier de Kersauson, whom he met during his stopover in Polynesia.
He must reach his home port, Saint-Brieuc, the real end of his world tour, on Saturday at the start of the afternoon.