Friday December 26, 2025 - Slowdown at the edge of the Pacific

December 26, 2025

Day 27

The eight sailors of The Famous Project CIC are finishing up their journey across the Indian Ocean. Straight, fast, and controlled, their progress due east has slowed somewhat 10 days after rounding Cape Agulhas, due to the forced crossing of a large high-pressure system centered under Australia, which is moving with them south of Tasmania.
This southern Australian island marks the entrance to the Pacific Ocean, and this morning the maxi trimaran IDEC SPORT is looking for a narrow corridor of pressure between the windless zone and the ice limit, the area beyond which icebergs and growlers rage and where no sailing vessel should enter.
The margins for maneuver are therefore slim for Alexia (Barrier), Dee (Caffari), Annemieke (Bes), Rebecca (Gmür Hornell), Deborah (Blair), Molly (LaPointe), Támara (Echegoyen), and Stacey (Jackson), who are forced to perform a series of gybes and break away from the efficient trajectories they have been following since South Africa.
South East Cape, the southern tip of Tasmania that marks the entrance to the Pacific, is now only 200 odd miles away, and the women of The Famous Project CIC hope to cross it tonight, provided they can escape the high-pressure center that is inexorably sliding across their path.
On its 27th day of racing, this all-female round-the-world attemmt is taking an unexpected turn in these desolate latitudes of the Southern Ocean, as the crew returns to a regatta pace on a sea that is certainly calmer but where they will have to perform a series of maneuvers to keep the right sails up in the capricious conditions of the day. After more than 10,500 miles, the crew of The Famous Project CIC will take advantage of calmer weather to check the boat from top to bottom once again before entering the Pacific, and to ensure that the huge net caught in the starboard foil two days ago has not caused any collateral damage.