Gently switching up into ‘attack’ mode

This Friday, Giancarlo Pedote and his direct rivals are carving out a ‘gull-wing’ wake to the west of the zone of high pressure. “We’re playing around with this closed zone of high atmospheric pressure, which is blocking our way and currently forcing us onto a beat”, explained the skipper of Prysmian Group in a message to his team early this morning.  “Over the coming hours, we’ll have to put in a change of tack. After that, we’ll be making headway on starboard tack and the wind is set to gradually lift, which will enable us to gain ground to the north”, commented the Florentine who, like his fellow rivals, is not on the most pleasant point of sail at the moment. “The boat is slamming a bit but it’s okay. We’re going to have a few rather full-on hours, but as the wind rotates things will become nicer. On top of that, getting more and more northing into our course is a real morale boost”, assures Giancarlo, who is now navigating his way between the 46th and 47th parallel south. “We’re currently hooking back up with more human temperatures. Everything’s heading in the right direction for closing on Les Sables d’Olonne”, added the Italian sailor, who is lying in 8th position today and is naturally keeping a close eye on his rivals. “We’re managing to claw back some miles in relation to the competition, which is fantastic. I’m working on my strategy as well as my tactics as I don’t want to get too far from the pack. Once I have the right conditions to enable my boat to show what she’s made of, that’ll be the point I put pedal to the medal. There are over 6,000 miles to go, which is still a long way, but it’ll certainly be important to go on the attack during this section of the course. That’s what I’m going to do, much more so than I did in the Deep South, but I’m not going to do anything absurd or out of control”, concluded Giancarlo Pedote.