Lia Ditton reflecting on a delivery voyage on Foncia/ORMA 60

The plane was now in full taxi, the G-force pressing me into the green Air Italia seat in preparation for take-off from Valencia. I ran that thought once more- the aircraft was pressing me into the green Air Italia seat … then I realised it was the same feeling! It was the same feeling that I had tried to describe for the past 6 days, while sailing from Lorient to Valencia on Alain Gautier’s ORMA 60 trimaran Foncia.

The full Foncia team was onboard as we pulled away from Foncia HQ by the submarine base in Lorient. This was a good thing, a very good thing indeed I came to realise as 6 of us huffed and puffed in turns at the grinders in order to hoist the main. Alain had a weekend date with a Decision 35 on a Swiss lake, so after much arm waving goodbye, it was just the four of us; three to grind and one to helm as we unfurled the jib and ripped off towards the descending sun.

I was unsure at first if the crew would be comfortable with me at the helm - none of them knew me or had any idea of my experience, but Gautier’s choice of crew seemed to count for everything and after a moment’s instruction on how my priority was not the course or the wind angle, but to maintain a continuous 15kts, I was very shortly left to it. I was still having wonderful ‘I have been entirely let loose at the helm of an ORMA 60 cruising at 15kts / hold on-how did this happen?!’ thoughts when nearly two hours later, the skipper Mayeul [known affectionately as ‘Mama!’] came to relieve me. Had two whole hours really flown by? Could it be true that we had just torn 30 easy miles away before sunset?

more here on bymnews.com: lia loving Foncia