Hashtag Sal · video

What this video covers

Adriano Plotzky, sailing aboard the Dyne, met a French sailor named Christophe in Curaçao — a heavyset man who sat motionless in a chair, chain-smoking, and barely moved to greet visitors.0:45 When Plotzky boarded, he saw why: Christophe's legs were riddled with lesions exposing bone, and his hands shook constantly.2:06 A daily pill organizer packed with medications kept him going.2:12 Only over dinner in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia — where Christophe arrived with his wife Silvia — did the full story emerge.3:25 Christophe had run a Paris advertising agency, competed in two editions of what is now the Volvo Ocean Race, and completed three solo transatlantic races.4:00 After his brother was killed by a bus, a degenerative neurological disease appeared and began destroying his muscles and nervous system.4:37 Doctors told him the medications only prolonged the suffering.4:49 He bought the catamaran with one goal: to die in French Polynesia.5:01 He never reached it, dying in San Blas on December 31 of that year.5:06 Plotzky recalls him as someone who never complained — only his eyes lit up when he talked about sailing and his plans.5:19

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