{"id":29354,"date":"2017-11-21T05:30:25","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T04:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=29354"},"modified":"2017-11-21T03:34:12","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T02:34:12","slug":"french-history-le-manureva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-history-le-manureva\/","title":{"rendered":"French History – Le Manureva"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thirty-nine years ago, the French sailor Alain Colas and his boat, le Manureva<\/em>, disappeared off the Azores (a group of North Atlantic islands about 850 miles west of the coast of Portugal) while particpating in the Route du Rhum<\/strong>. The tale has inspired many, including the French composer Alain Chamfort and the singer\/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A picture of the Manureva and her crew taken in St. Malo in November 1978 shortly before the start of the inaugural Route du Rhum<\/em>.^<\/p><\/div>\n

La Route du Rhum<\/strong><\/a> (the Rum Trail)<\/em> is an elite course \u00e0 la voile<\/strong> (sailing race\/competition<\/em>) crossing la mer Atlantique<\/strong> (the Atlantic ocean<\/em>) from the port city of St. Malo<\/a> in France to Pointe \u00e0 Pitre on the island of Guadeloupe<\/a> in the Caribean.<\/p>\n

Alain Colas was by all accounts a force of nature. In the years leading up to the Route, he had already won a race across the Atlantic and completed the first solo trip around the globe in a multihull sailboat (the same Manureva). He was also a media star of the day, which made his disappearance all the more of an event.<\/p>\n

On November 16, 1978, while leading the pack, Alain made his last known radio call from the heart of a storm. “Je suis dans l’oeil du cyclone. Il n’y a plus de ciel, tout est amalgame d’\u00e9l\u00e9ments, il y a des montagnes d’eau autour de moi . . . “<\/strong> (I’m in the eye of a hurricane. There is no more sky, everything is a mix of elements, there are mountains of water around me . . . “).<\/em><\/p>\n

The disappearance led to a massive search and rescue effort that lasted for many weeks, but which sadly ended without anyone every finding a trace of le navigateur* ou de son bateau<\/strong> (the sailor or his boat.<\/em>) The song the tale inspired may be a bit (ok, very) kitsch. But despite the cheesy video, it has reminded the French of this sad story for over 35 years.<\/p>\n