Homecoming Queen

Les Sables is preparing to welcome its heroes home, Ed Gorman is there to sample the atmosphere

Les Sables d'Olonne is buzzing already as the windswept town on the French Biscay coast prepares to welcome its Vendee Globe heroes home. "Le Vendee Globe - Ils Arrivent!," proclaim the posters on the street corners. The talk, however, is not so much about Michel Desjoyeaux who looks set to win the race and finish on Saturday, but the latest dramatic news from Kingfisher.

The imposition of another news blackout on the broken forestay by MacArthur and Kingfisher means that even here, people had no idea that the young English skipper had come close once more to disaster until Friday morning when the news began to spread from the race office.

At the Cap Ouest bar overlooking the marina where Ellen will finally bring Kingfisher to a stop on Sunday or early on Monday, the proprietor Christine Navarro was shocked when told what had happened. The bar is Ellen's adopted home on the waterfront and Madame Navarro is one of her most fervent supporters.

Cap Ouest has given itself over to Kingfisher completely. The interior has been repainted in Kingfisher's bright yellow and blue livery and even the napkins and place settings are blue and yellow. The walls are covered in framed posters- "Bravo Ellen" proclaims one - and scores of newspaper cuttings, some even from the British press. The more recent ones concentrate on her month-long battle with Desjoyeaux. "Desjoyeaux talonne par MacArthur", reads one cutting with pictures of the two skippers - "MacArthur on Desjoyeaux's heels."

I asked Madame Navarro whether she thought the same number of people who are expected to turn out for Desjoyeaux will come to see Ellen finish - the race office is expecting more than 100,000 for the PRB skipper. "Oh, more for Ellen for sure," she said. "She is a queen here. She is my customer." Then she showed me her latest homemade poster which features a picture of Ellen at the helm with the legend in English: "Queen Ellen is back. She is a tamer of the seas."

Along the quayside the race village is being re-constructed just as it was at the start and, just as it was three months ago, a westerly gale is blowing the local dogs off their proverbial chains. Just as then too, the race organisation looks to be creaking under the pressure as hundreds of journalists, photographers and TV crews arrive to capture the drama of the finish. The Vendee Globe has perhaps outgrown its own organisation as has Les Sables itself, where there isn't a spare hotel room to be found.

For those of us who were here for the pre-start, it seems hard to believe the race can already be nearly over for the leading boats. Just think, Ellen is going to finish in under 100 days - touch wood. In 1969 Robin Knox-Johnston completed the same feat but it took him 313 days. Things have come on a bit since then.

So we await the high emotion of the end to the greatest single-handed race of all time. We know that Ellen herself has mixed feelings. She wants to get here but she dreads too the sudden attention she is going to receive and she has already said the only bit she is really looking forward to is seeing her family and friends and her dog, Mac. But I can't help thinking that secretly she will also be thinking "Yes, I've done it" and this acclaim is my reward. No doubt also, she will find time to pop in to see Madame Navarro and have a beer while the flashlights flash.