Monday, December 1: Change of scenery
Sailing conditions changed radically overnight aboard IDEC SPORT. After a fierce battle, the all-female crew led by Alexia Barrier and Dee Caffari was caught up in an anticyclonic bubble coming from the south of the Azores, which had the unfortunate idea of lingering on the Maxi Trimaran’s route off the coast of Porto.
With a series of gybes yesterday and last night, Alexia, Dee, Bessie, Bex Debs, Molly, Xiquita, and Stacey managed to delay the inevitable for a long time: the sudden and untimely slowdown in their rush southward. The girls have thus gone from full speed ahead to slow and steady, heading west-southwest, where the wind should return from the west, then northwest, by late morning. They will then resume a more direct course downwind. The sea has naturally calmed down, and it is under a perfectly clear sky, with rising temperatures, that the crew of The Famous Project CIC will eat their bread and water while waiting for the next front to cross today. Yesterday’s gybes will be replaced by tacking, which will certainly disrupt the routine of the watches, as they wait for calmer and more direct sailing conditions tomorrow as they head towards the Canary Islands.
Words from Alexia Barrier
« The last 24 hours… what a story! After spending the whole day trying to pick up speed, sometimes even exceeding our polar coordinates and target speeds, it still wasn’t enough. The sea has its own rules, and this time it gave us a night that was too calm. Much too calm.
The little mouse hole—remember, the one we were hoping to pass through—well, that didn’t happen. The wind caught up with us, or rather… abandoned us. Now we find ourselves in very light winds, almost dead calm, and let’s be honest, it’s not exactly ideal when you’re chasing a round-the-world record.
But you know what? The road is long, very long, and we knew very well when we left Brest that this scenario was part of the game. So we chose to leave, so we choose to continue. Even if, for the moment, our speeds do not reflect all the energy we are putting on board — and I can tell you there is a lot of energy.
Our brains are working at 200%, adjustments are being made one after another, we’re maneuvering, we’ve changed the headsails quite a bit, we’re hunting down every little breeze… And in the midst of all this, we’re also taking the time to talk to each other, to catch our breath, to exchange ideas, to rest.
We know we’ll need all that energy, because right now the sea has calmed down, almost gentle, waiting for the front to arrive. And this one isn’t going to be a gentle one. Rain, gusts… it’s going to reach up to 40 knots in the gusts. A good slap in the face to clean everything up. And once we’ve crossed this little stormy patch, we should be back on a downwind course.
So there you have it, a somewhat slow and frustrating day and night, but totally in keeping with the spirit of a round-the-world race where nothing is ever a given and everything is still possible.
Article by The Famous Project CIC
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