On the up heading south

Italian Ambrogio Beccaria (Allagrande Mapei) is super positive this morning challenging for third and having had a glance of a sun dappled mountain on Iceland  and Italian American Francesca Clapcich (11th Hour Racing) is going fast heading south and looking to put into action her learning from the first stage of her race, to trust her instincts more and own her decisions. 

Clapcich is in a positive frame of mind, speaking on the morning radio calls she said, “I feel pretty good. I'm on the way back, on the way south, so it's good. Right now the weather is pretty nice. I'm just on the south side of the ZPB, you know, the Forbidden Area, east of Iceland. And we'll have like an acceleration zone on the east coast of Iceland. I need to change the sail or maybe manage with what I have. But the weather is pretty nice right now. Yesterday it was quite complicated, quite light to get to the Arctic Circle. So I’m happy to go downwind.”

Although it was grey and cold and very much a ‘virtual’ experience Clapcich takes great pride in her crossing of the Arctic Circle, “It is quite surreal, right? You're in the middle of the fog with the freezing cold outside. You just see this line on the chart and you're like, ‘okay, I guess I'm going to bear away and go south now.’ . But, it’s pretty cool when you think about it, I don't know how many people have been up there with a boat like ours. It’s quite special. It is definitely something I’m really proud of. I think the entire team worked really hard to make sure that the boat is in a really good shape. So it is a good moment overall for a lot of us. 

Today will be a chance to stock up on rest and make sure she is in perfect shape for a intense passage down the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland down into the Saint George’s Channel between Ireland and Wales, both pinch points with unsettled, gusty winds strong currents and all kinds of marine traffic, from recreational yachts to fishing boats and ferries.  

Asked about her self-management she replies, “I’ve done decently so far, you know. There are, of course, moments where it's a bit harder and you feel you want to be really present with the navigation and the boat. But at the same time, you have to rest. It is impossible to be awake all the time. So, I mean, to be honest, I end up delaying a bit too much my second gybe getting back towards the forbidden area because I fell asleep. It is not ideal, but it happened.

The passage east of Ireland will not be straightforward, “It is not ideal. It's not something that I will dream at night to do it because especially the beginning of the channel where there is the TSS, it can be pretty nasty. We're going to have westerly wind with the current, depending on the timing. But right now, with this timing, I will have the current against me with the wind kind of against the current. So, it can be intense. After that, to be honest, it's not that bad, you know. It's quite a straight line down south. So, in reality, you kind of cut the corner a little bit. I'm definitely a bit stressed about the beginning of it because there is not that much space on both sides of the TSS. So, you have, you know, two miles in one side, another two miles with an island in the middle. So at this point you are thinking you're not going to win the race over there. You can lose it if you're doing something stupid. So at one at one point, you slow down the boat and you just make sure that you pass the first TSS. And then it should be a pretty nice ride after the moment. Some reaching on the J0.

And soon she will have spent more racing time solo on an IMOCA than ever before, 
“Yes I did the 1,000 Race which was five days at sea, six days at sea. So, it will be definitely my longest race. This race already feels so long. I don't know why. It's been only five days, but it feels a lifetime out here. It's quite intense, a lot of changes. The weather, you know, it's really cold. It's quite brutal. So, it doesn't allow you for a tonne of rest. But so far, so good. I'm enjoying it. And I'm learning so much every day that I want to, like, be really able to keep it with me for the future, for the Vendée Globe, and, you know, keep learning. It's an amazing thing that I'm almost 40 years old and, you know, still the motivation to learn every day. And I find really joy in that.

She is pledging to trust her instincts more, 
“I mean, the biggest takeaway for me from this race is that I do love sailing a bit with a gut feeling, decision-making. Like, of course, I look at the weather, I look at the routing options and stuff, but then I really love to make decisions and be convinced in decisions. And in a few moments I feel that the decisions were in charge of me instead of the opposite. So I think that's the biggest takeaway of the race. I didn't stick with my gut, with my plan initially. And in the end, you know, it was not the right thing to do. So I think for this last part of the race, I really want to stick with my gut, see what's the right thing to do. And at the end, you know, at least at the end of the finish line, I will be like, yeah, I did everything that I thought it was right to do and it didn't pan out, but I'm happy with it. So that's probably the biggest thing about, you know, especially a couple of days ago.

And Ambrogio is super positive on his downhill run south, 

“Life is very, very nice because I just saw Iceland. It was just a few moments of light, I don't know why, because it's been grey for two days but and I can see the mountain with the snow on the island. It was wonderful. This race has been a fully intense race, very adventurous. Now I'm sailing with a lot of wind at the moment, I'm still on the acceleration zone off Iceland. I have 25 to 30 knots, so the boat is quite bumpy. But now the race could be very fast now. I was quite slow all of the race because we did a lot of upwind and reaching, and I was not fast at all. So finally, we had some nice downwind and I was quite fast. So, I'm happy but sad that it didn't last very long.

He is close with Violette and says he passed her last night, 
“I've been catching Violette. I passed her last night. I think that she was sailing with J0, and I didn't bring the masthead zero. So, I did all the sailing with the quad, and it was quite nice. Sometimes it was light, sometimes strong, so at the end, in the middle, it's not that bad. But I passed Violette. Now I’m trying to catch Elodie I mean she’s quite far in front. But I'm happy I'm still in the race after all that I have to pass through. I'm glad I'm here.”

And the Italian seems set to take a conservative option and go west of Ireland…