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Friday December 12, 2025, Day 13: The gateway to the Southern Ocean
Increasingly comfortable and confident, the all female crew of The Famous Project CIC are growing bolder with every mile that brings them closer to the roaring southern latitudes. At the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, located less than 1,800 miles to their east this morning, Alexia Barrier, Dee Caffari, Annemieke Bes, Rebecca Gmür Hornell, Deborah Blair, Molly LaPointe, Támara Echegoyen, and Stacey Jackson have just experienced their fastest night since the start of their round-the-world race. Perfectly positioned between a high-pressure system and a low-pressure system coming from the Argentine coast, they are taking advantage of an excellent wind angle to accelerate and make significant progress towards the African continent. They are now reaching speeds of around 30 knots at the helm of the Maxi trimaran, a speed that is essential in their race to stay ahead of this low-pressure system, a veritable conveyor belt towards the next major milestone of their journey, the Cape of Good Hope and its neighbor Cape Agulhas, which marks the entrance to the Indian Ocean. The idea is to stay in this favorable wind, blowing at over 20 knots at the edge of the low-pressure system, and to race with it without being overtaken. This is undoubtedly a foretaste of the scenarios hoped for in the two immense challenges to come, which are already capturing everyone's attention on board: the crossing of the Indian Ocean, then the Pacific. These are prospects familiar to the most experienced sailors on board, Alexia, Dee, Stacey, Annemieke, Támara and Molly, but which Deborah and Rebecca are eager to discover.