Saturday, January 10, 2026 – Slowdown, foiling, and restart
Moving eastward, the high-pressure system centered off the coast of Uruguay blocked the progress of the IDEC SPORT Maxi Trimaran sailed by the women of The Famous Project CIC. The result: a whole day of slow sailing, punctuated by numerous gybes in search of wind.
The wind is now starting to fill the sails of the large multihull, which is gradually lengthening its stride northward this morning. A new challenge of the same ilk is looming in the form of the Saint Helena high-pressure system, an extension of which is languishing off the coast of Brazil.
Circumnavigating it to the west will require sailing as close as possible to the wind, in a very mild north/northeast flow of around 12 knots, and on very manageable seas with waves of less than 2 meters.
Yesterday’s extremely calm conditions also allowed the crew to notice the deterioration of their starboard foil, the same one that had collided at high speed with a large fishing net and its floats when passing under Leeuwin. When they tried to raise it as the light winds approached, the crew could only confirm that it had delaminated. It is now raised to its highest position, unusable.
The equator is just over 2,000 miles away this morning, and Alexia (Barrier), Dee (Caffari), Annemieke (Bes), Rebecca (Gmür Hornell), Deborah (Blair), Molly (LaPointe), Támara (Echegoyen) and Stacey (Jackson) are all on course to reach it by the end of next week.
Excerpt from an article by The Famous Project CIC
Follow the adventure on IDEC SPORT social media and via the comprehensive map =>> https://trimaran-idec.geovoile.com/julesverne/2025/viewer/
