"A Light-Wind Trap Could Put Everything Back in Play"

Manu Cousin (Coup de Pouce) :  “Crossing the Arctic Circle is another important box ticked. I’d been looking forward to it for quite a while. The climb north wasn’t easy. I haven’t spoken about everything, but we’ve had quite a few technical adventures along the way. We expected some of it because the boat was relaunched late and we carried out a huge amount of work on her over the winter. This Vendée Arctique was, in a way, our full-scale test session. Even when you know these things are likely to happen, they’re never easy to deal with, especially when you see your competitors disappearing over the horizon while you know the boat has real potential. But the essential thing lies elsewhere. I absolutely want to finish this race. We’re still here, still at sea, and the past few days have reminded us that there are things far more important than a few technical issues.Those problems will eventually pass. The objective is to get home, collect the points available for the championship and continue learning.In a sailor’s career, crossing the 66th parallel north is no small achievement. And it certainly cools your toes down! What’s quite funny is how quickly the environment changes. I’m told it’s very hot in Les Sables d’Olonne while up here we’re sailing in temperatures of 5 or 6 degrees Celsius. There’s something that recalls the Great South. It’s not exactly the same because we don’t have the huge ocean swells, but there’s definitely a similar atmosphere. I’m proud to have made it this far and I think the whole team can be proud too. We talk a lot about the problems we’ve encountered, but sometimes we forget everything that was achieved simply to make it to the start of this race. And overall, I’m delighted because everything we fundamentally modified on the boat is working well. There will be adjustments to make, of course, and at this level you pay immediately for any shortcomings. But that’s normal. We hadn’t sailed much in these conditions, and nothing replaces a voyage in the High North when it comes to learning. I also remember that great battle at the start with Elodie Bonafous. It’s not necessarily my usual style, but finding ourselves almost bow-to-bow at the top of the line was a great image. As for the return, my objective is simple: bring the boat home in the condition she’s in today, without any further problems. If the climb north was difficult, I’d quite like Neptune to leave me alone on the way back! Of course, I’ll try to sail as fast as possible, but today the priority is simply to finish. My routings currently suggest an arrival sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. We’ll see. In a week like this, with the conditions we’re expecting, you can very quickly gain—or lose—a whole day.”

Violette Dorange (Initiatives Cœur) :  “I’m currently sailing along the Irish coast. The wind is very unstable because it’s coming off the land. We go from zero knots to more than twenty knots in a matter of minutes. At the moment, I’m rounding the final headland of Ireland. After that, it will be upwind sailing almost straight south, with far fewer maneuvers. I can’t wait! It’s true that the situation towards the finish could become very interesting. If the forecast light-air patch materializes, it could reshuffle quite a few things. Obviously, that’s a scenario I rather like. When I chose to pass west of Ireland, I knew I would lose ground compared with the inside route. At one stage, the routings were showing almost a full day between the two options. But honestly, I couldn’t see myself trying to negotiate the North Channel and the traffic separation schemes in thirty knots of wind and heavy seas, especially after the damage I had already suffered upwind. I preferred to go around, knowing I would give away miles. Today, the bill may end up being a little less expensive than expected. If the fleet compresses again approaching Les Sables d’Olonne, that would be fantastic. The gaps with Ambrogio remain small and even with Elodie they’re not huge. If the light-air patch decides to get involved, it could reopen a lot of possibilities. That said, I’m not getting carried away. Even after choosing the outside route, I’ve pushed hard in every maneuver. I’m also carrying the handicap of losing my MH0 and, in the lighter conditions that are forecast, that won’t be an advantage. We’ll see. But it’s true that if the race can tighten up again, I’d be very happy. Since rounding Ireland, I’ve been so busy with maneuvers and navigating close to the rocks that I haven’t even had time to look closely at what the others are doing. My own routings, however, are fairly encouraging. At first, they were forecasting much larger areas of light wind. Today, the picture seems a little clearer, which is definitely good news.”

Francesca Clapcich (11th Hour Racing) :  “The night was actually quite pleasant along the west coast of Ireland. I had a fairly stable breeze of around 18 to 20 knots in ideal reaching conditions under J2. The boat was moving fast without being difficult to handle, which allowed me to recover a little. I was really tired and finally managed to get some proper sleep.That did me a lot of good. I chose to stay slightly further offshore rather than moving closer to the coast. I was concerned about losing wind in the lee of the terrain and preferred to maintain more consistent pressure. So far, I’m pretty happy with that decision. My original intention had been to pass inside Ireland through the North Channel. But I lost time on the approach and eventually it became clear that the risk-reward balance was no longer attractive. If I arrived too late in the channel, I could end up with no wind after taking all the risks required to get there. In the end, I accepted that the plan was no longer going to work and switched to the western route. It’s never ideal to change strategy midway through a race. You always lose a little ground when you abandon the scenario you originally imagined. But I genuinely believe it was the right decision. Being flexible is part of the game too. I quite like what lies ahead. There are still plenty of opportunities. I’m at the back of this leading group and, to a certain extent, I don’t have much to lose. When conditions become unstable and difficult to read, that’s often when the biggest gains can be made. If we simply had 36 or 48 hours of straight-line sailing to the finish, the race would probably already be over. But there is still a lot to do and I think it will remain fascinating all the way to the line. As for strategy, I prefer to continue following my own ideas rather than constantly watching what everyone else is doing. Of course, I keep an eye on their trajectories. But if you spend all your time following your competitors, you often end up reproducing their choices. With such an unstable weather situation, I’d rather analyze each new weather file as it arrives and build my own interpretation of the race. I feel good. Tired, obviously, but good. Whenever I get an opportunity to sleep or recover, I try to take advantage of it. This is the longest solo passage of my entire life. In reality, I have relatively little experience in this format and spending more than a week alone at sea represents a very important milestone for me. It’s a valuable step in my preparation for the Route du Rhum and, further down the road, the Vendée Globe.”