Her welcome party in the start and finish harbour of Les Sables-d'Olonne was particularly warm in bright sunshine under a blue sky. And Isabelle Joschke enjoyed every second of her journey through the canal. Four weeks after the fastest boats in the 9th Vendée Globe, the 44-year-old German-French sailor reached the port she left on 8 November to conquer the world solo, single-handed and non-stop for the first time. A series of technical setbacks, a marathon of repairs and finally the failing keel hydraulics prevented the fighter from finishing the race as possibly the best skipper. She had to give up in the middle of a storm and head for Salvador de Bahia with her keel swinging free. There she stopped for repairs for ten days and, like Samantha Davies, decided to finish her race outside the classification. Isabelle Joschke's bravura performance was achieved 107 days and 21 hours after the start on 24 February 2021.
"I have the feeling that I was very close to the worst and the best of this race," said Joschke at the press conference after her acclaimed arrival. For her, arriving was above all a victory over herself, her own uncertainty and her own fears. She observed herself and her reactions during the race as if through a magnifying glass and didn't always like what she saw. However, she also recognised her abilities and used them to achieve a personal and, above all, a happy conclusion to the Vendée Globe premiere.
The harbingers of the knockout blow for Isabelle Joschke had already made themselves felt on 3 January when the keel hydraulic cylinder at the upper end of the keel fin of the "MACF" broke. A week later, the replacement solution also broke. "The night when the storm came was terrible," Joschke recalls. "The keel swayed loosely from side to side and I couldn't get away. My boat almost capsized, with the mast already in the water. Everything on board was flying around. I really thought I was going to capsize." The shock was deep. But Joschke pulled himself out of his slump a little more each day. Physically and mentally.
However, the soloist, who fell in love with sailing as a child on the Austrian Traunsee, did not want to think about a comeback on the day of her return. She had already told YACHT about her future participation plans: "I think it's important to love what you have, what you have achieved. I could take part twice and not make it twice. I think I delivered a good match. You can always do better - but you can also do worse. It could have been over for me like it was for Sam Davies in Cape Town." According to Joschke, she was very touched by a message from Jean Le Cam that she received on the day of her retirement: "I cried. My disappointment at being knocked out was so immense."
When asked what she would like to do most after her rollercoaster ride through the Vendée Globe, where she was even in the top five at times and was definitely expected to finish on the podium, Joschke said: "For now, I want to enjoy the time with my friends, my team and my partners. I want to enjoy this sunny day and I want to feel and savour the silence under my feet. Right now. And nothing else." Isabelle Joschke finishes the Vendée Globe with her head held high: "For me, it's a victory in itself. It feels like I've won. I didn't win the Vendée Globe. But what I have won feels enormous." The daughter of a French mother and a German father, who lives in Lorient, was not yet sure whether the race around the world had changed her as a person so soon after the race. However, she was able to share another observation: "I have the feeling that I have seen my true self."
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
