While completing the Vendée Globe, the solo, non-stop race around the world, is difficult enough for any sailor, winning it is even more complicated. And if you do it while fighting cancer, as Frenchman Charlie Dalin did in January this year, the feat is doubly astounding and shows the impressive resilience of the human body and mind.
Dalin, 41, who on Thursday (9) published the book “La Force du Destin” (“The Force of Destiny”), revealed that he faced the ordeal, which he completed in a record time of 64 days, with “an intruder on board”, a rare form of gastrointestinal cancer that he continues to fight against.
“Certainly, having this intruder on board made the task a little more complicated,” said the sailor. “Today, I see this as a double victory.”
In 2023, Dalin was diagnosed with a gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) days before participating in another regatta, the Transat Jacques Vabre, which he had to withdraw from to undergo treatment.
“Being able to set sail was already a victory”
Months later, he returned to sea. “If the doctors had any doubts, I wouldn’t have done it,” he says. “I wouldn’t have taken any risks for my wife and son. Sailing is my job, and they were happy for me when I was able to get back on the water.”
Dalin decided not to make his illness public, fearing it would frustrate his plans to participate in the Vendée Globe for the second time (his first participation was in the previous edition, in 2020/21), a race that is followed with great interest in France.
Days before the start of the regatta, in Les Sables-d’Olonne (western France), in November last year, a new examination revealed that the tumor had not grown.
“The illness also made me see things from a different perspective. Just being able to set sail was already a victory.”
Once away from shore and having to take his medication daily, his navigator’s instinct took over.
Career break
Despite constant fatigue, Dalin passed the Cape of Good Hope leading the race and risked facing a storm in the Indian Ocean that threatened to tear his boat apart. Most participants bypassed the storm, taking a longer route.
“I followed my strategy, sleeping an average of six and a half hours a day, which was considerably more than in my first Vendée,” he explained.
“There were no distractions on board, so I took advantage of every free moment to sleep.”
“I had stomach pains, but I told myself, ‘You don’t have time to worry about this.’ And the pains went away as quickly as they came.”
“When I returned to dry land, I had practically forgotten [das dores]”.
When he crossed the finish line in January, bottles of champagne were opened in his honor, but just weeks later he had to undergo surgery.
“The surgery date would have been almost the same if I hadn’t gone,” says Dalin, who hopes her story gives hope to others suffering from cancer.
“If it helps people who are going through this kind of thing, even if it’s just four of them, that would be amazing.”
For now, Dalin has had to take a break from his sailing career. “Currently, the disease is stable. I have lost a lot of weight and can no longer compete in offshore regattas.”
“I won’t be able to participate in the next Vendée Globe, but I hope to return one day and perhaps compete in transatlantic regattas,” he promises.
