Vendée Arctique I Day 3 Report
After three days at sea, Francesca has her IMOCA, 11th Hour Racing, in a strong position in the fleet ranking, holding fourth place about 123 nautical miles behind the leader, Sam Goodchild on MACIF Santé Prévoyance.
This morning 11th Hour Racing was clocking the highest average speeds in the fleet and still romping along in a southwesterly airflow at a position about 130 miles west of the Orkney Islands, and with around 460 miles still to sail to cross the Arctic Circle.
In terms of the ranking, Francesca was just 15 miles behind third-placed Violette Dorange on board Initiatives-Cœur, and about 27 miles ahead of Ambrogio Beccaria on Allagrande MAPEI. Her fellow Italian had to stop to dive down to free a lobster pot line caught on his keel.
It’s a positive picture for Francesca, but she had something on her mind today that she wants to try and correct. She is concerned that she is the most westerly of the leading five boats as they head north between the Faroe and Shetland Islands, and she wants to get further east to stay in the breeze.
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“Right now we are in a bit more pleasant conditions, lighter winds but still pretty fast sailing,” she reported this morning. “The thing I don’t like is how far west I am positioned. It kind of happened a bit organically because I couldn’t sail any lower yesterday and, in the end, I ended up being a bit further west compared to the fleet.”
Francesca knows that she may have to change course to the east and it will be a call based on what she sees outside the boat as much as what the weather models are telling her. “There is a low pressure to the west of me and basically the wind is slowly shifting left and I got stuck in that system, so this is exactly what I am trying to avoid today,” she explained. “I want to stay in this nice pressure and this nice channel of breeze and, at one point, if I feel that the wind is dropping and I get sucked in, I might even have to gybe to stay in the good pressure pointing north.”
Looking ahead, the top-five boats are sailing between two depressions, and the one centred to the west of Norway will be the system that will dominate the Arctic Circle phase of the race. “The low pressure to the west of Norway is the one I am happy to play with to get up there,” said Francesca. “It will bring some decent breeze, but nothing too crazy if you stay slightly further west.”
The way back, she says, is likely to be the same route as the way north – coming back to the west of the United Kingdom. Francesca says it will be a powered-up trip south, what she calls a “pretty fast and sporty ride.” There will be strong winds and big waves, before the leaders sail into lighter winds in the Bay of Biscay on the approach to the finish.