Anne Quéméré was rescued last Thursday by a container ship enroute to Panama. Conditions did not allow to pick-up the small vessel which was ultimately abandoned. Image courtesy of voyage website.
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Ocean kiter Anne Quéméré rescued
Posted: Dec 17, 2008 01:47 pm EST
(The Oceans.net) "In the worst spot of the Doldrums," close to the Equator last week, using a sea anchor to avoid negative drift, Anne expected hard days ahead due to a predicted storm rising from the West.
The Doldrums did not let her pass. All a kiter needs is wind and that was the one thing Anne didn't get. The infamous low-pressure area so dreaded by sailors created a dead calm forcing Anne to surrender.
Anne Quéméré was rescued last Thursday by a container ship enroute to Panama. Conditions did not allow to pick-up the small vessel which was ultimately abandoned.
"Numerous times I compared myself to Don Quichotte who fought windmills like me, gaining a few miles during the day to see them reversed at night," Anne explained a few days later.
The solar panels gave up two days before, depriving her of all electricity on board, making for a complicated rescue due to the blacked-out electronic equipment.
"The captain of the 300 metre vessel handled this monster like I did my little Oceankite," Anne reported. "The crew members were excellent and after 35 days of loneliness on the Pacific Ocean I suddenly was surrounded by 26 sailors who really didn't know what to do to please me. What a change!"
More research needed
Emotional, and having trouble to accept her defeat at first, Anne soon looked ahead. "This first on such a route proved that considerable research is needed in the maneuvering of kites before they can be used regularly on naval routes."
"We won't see them flourish tomorrow on cargo ships or fishing boats because their use is too uncertain, especially in the calmer parts of the oceans such as the Doldrums. We're now heading to Panama, an unplanned destination, but isn't this adventure!"
Anne should be in New York on December 23rd, just in time to spend Christmas with her daughter. "This is a great gift following the profound deception of the past weeks,” she wrote. "When I spoke to her a few days ago, her first question was 'Will you attempt further challenges'. In my hesitancy, she added 'You'll go back because what you do is cool'. A few words are enough to bring back a smile..."
Born in Brittany, France, Anne Quéméré grew up by the sea. She moved to the US in the early 1990’s, living in Louisiana and New York before going back to her native Brittany in 2001 where she practices sailing and rowing on a traditional skiff built by her father. Anne rowed the Atlantic from East to West in 2003 and from West to East in 2004.
In 2006, Anne completed a 55 day solo-crossing of the North Atlantic from Ambrose Light in Lower New York Bay to Ile de Ouessant (west of Brittany), on a small 5 meter vessel pulled along by Kites of various sizes.
Over a month out on her new challenge, kite-crossing the Pacific, Anne left San Francisco late October heading to the French Polynesian Islands but was picked up near the Equator by a ship on December 11 due to difficult kite-passage through the Doldrums.
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