Saturday January 24, 2026 - Ushant, and nothing else...

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Day 56

“If it were easy, everyone would do it!” The aphorism made two days ago by British sailor Dee Caffari in response to the first tear in the mainsail of the Maxi Trimaran IDEC SPORT takes on its full terrible meaning with every mile covered by the female crew of The Famous Project CIC. The mainsail, which was first torn at the second reef, is now completely unusable since yesterday. The starboard foil has stopped working since the return in theSouth Atlantic, while one of the two autopilots on board has also decided to give up.
And yet, faced with this accumulation of setbacks, a single motto inhabits, nourishes, and motivates the eight women on board: reach Ushant, complete the loop, and achieve this titanic feat that no female crew has ever accomplished, a non-stop round-the-world race in a multihull. The dream of Alexia from France, Dee and Deborah from Britain, Annemieke from the Netherlands, Rebecca from Switzerland and New Zealand, Molly from Italy and America, Tamara from Spain, and Stacey from Australia is within reach, 800 miles away, that Neptune is trying to turn into a seaman’s nightmare, throwing nothing less than a huge winter storm, ironically named Ingrid, at the battered girls and their damaged trimaran. Powered by their mast only and, at the slightest drop in wind, with the help of the J3, they are steering their bows more and more decisively towards the raging Bay of Biscay and the tip of Brittany. They know that the heavy weather is not over yet, as a second deep low-pressure system will hit the French coast tomorrow morning. Yes Dee, if only it were that easy...

Alexia Barrier:
"The night went well, and we're being tossed around a bit by the waves because we're under sail, but it's okay. With the sunrise, we're securing the lazy bag, the boom, and the mainsail, which is quite heavy. The wind should pick up again in four hours. We're taking it in stride, it'll be fine."