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Stephane Mahe

Samantha Davies trains for the 2020 race. Sailors spend an average of three months alone at sea, sleeping in 20-minute intervals.

French skipper Clarisse Crémer enjoys a stress-free moment on her Banque Populaire X sailboat. The Vendée Globe is as much a mental test as it is a physical one.

Participants begin and end the Vendée Globe from Les Sables-d'Olonne, France. Along the way, they face challenges from house-sized waves to icebergs.

Bags containing ammonium nitrate fertilizer are dispalyed in an agricultural trader in Vieillevigne, France, October 7, 2016.