On board “Belem”, the Olympic flame and “a unique alchemy”

“All hands on deck, ready to maneuver!” » Suddenly the sea took on a steel gray hue and blended with the leaden sky. THE Belem suddenly his wood creaks, his ropes snap, and the captain calls for all available hands. Remaining straight as one since the start of the crossing, thanks to particularly mild weather, the three-masted ship has become italic. Sailing with all sails hoisted is now spelled crooked, making the approaches exotic, crablike, sideways, skimming the walls, trying to hold on to anything that doesn’t move.

Kévin Gendarme, one of the three keepers of the flame, who walks a tightrope in flip-flops, tries to keep his lantern perpendicular, during the journey’s first storm. On the wheelhouse side, at the back of the boat, Captain Aymeric Gibet, with his cap on his head, looks delighted at this gust of wind that is synonymous with action. “We tripled our speed in ten minutes!” List at 12° to starboard, sea not too heavy, typical of the Mediterranean. »

It is May 2, the time is 3:00 p.m., the ship, 60 miles from Naples, is moving at nearly 8 knots, having moved like a snail through technicolor landscapes, the turquoise waters of the Corinth Canal, the crimson lava of Stromboli , then later at night, blue Capri under the stars. The first intersection is approaching, to avoid Belem to come dangerously close to the Italian coast.

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The transalpine frigates that accompanied the three-masted ship during the crossing of the Straits of Messina have disappeared. Only the tug of the national navy Seine keep watch within 2 miles. T-shirts swapped for oilskins, the entire crew gathers in the large coach roof to listen to the brief while giving direct instructions from the captain. “We have to turn, which means raising all the sails [changer leur orientation]. During the next three days, we will draw sections towards the north alternating with the engine” he explains, model of the boat in hand, before announcing: “Tonight night shifts will be optional. »

The two OM fans, Marseillais Houari Belkouane and Yassine Nassah, cheer. For them, it is the opportunity to watch at regular intervals, due to capricious Wi-Fi, the team’s match against Atalanta Bergamo in the semi-final first leg of the Europa League. In the morning, before the swell formed, they were both, like most of their mates, up in the mast, experiencing the reality of the topmen’s work. One of the moments most awaited by the sixteen youths in integration, “scouts” of the torch relay, renamed by some as the laziness relay: the 6th.^e on the day of the crossing it shows some wear.

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