There are just over a dozen of them who missed the window of opportunity with depression “Theta”. Quite stressful conditions for these sailors who are watching for any gust of wind to finally pick up some speed.
While the leading boats have already passed Cape Verde and are heading towards the Doldrums, at the back, competitors are taking advantage of the calm conditions to tinker and get some rest. A wait that seems endless for some who already see their chance to do well overall slipping away.
There is therefore only one thing to do… wait. Wait again and again for the weather conditions to improve to get out of this predicament. While conditions were improving for Alexia Barrier’s IMOCA in the middle of the night, the Maralpine woke up with a start from her quick nap to jibe (change the side on which the wind enters the sail). A very usual maneuver for her, but which in the middle of the night turned into a hassle: I lowered the spinnaker with my new system to bring it down, and it worked really well. By the time I went to grab the halyard to lower it, that naughty sock had wrapped itself around the forestay 15 times. So, I struggled to finally manage to bring down the spinnaker, which I call “Scarface” because it has been repaired two or three times from top to bottom and side to side. Anyway, I managed to bring Scarface into the sail locker. And when I headed to the back of the boat to store the lines, I realized that a sheet had wrapped around the hydrogenerator! Do we call that Murphy’s Law? No, maybe it’s just haste and a lesson to be learned for next time. I’ll lower the spinnaker before the wind picks up, it will be much easier, Alexia explained on her social networks.
A nice anecdote that will have given her the opportunity to pick up a bit more speed yesterday compared to the previous day (average of 13 km/h) and to gain a place in the race standings. She still has 42,600 kilometers to cover before returning to Les Sables d’Olonne.
