In the grip of the doldrums!

Big clouds instability, squalls… There’s no doubt about it, this Friday, Giancarlo Pedote and Martin Le are most definitely in the grip of the doldrums, this famous intertropical convergence zone that is notorious for its variable winds and tough to predict changes. “We’ve had a bit of a complicated night. The guys on Corum and Nexans – Art et Fenêtres have headed due west at full speed whilst we got caught up in a big cloud at the edge. We thought the others would get trapped but they’ve slipped through effortlessly”, commented the skipper of Prysmian Group, now positioned in 10th place within the IMOCA fleet in the Transat Jacques Vabre Normandie Le Havre. His goal: to escape this stagnant zone as quickly as possible. Right now though, it’s hard to predict with any degree of accuracy the point where the Italian sailor and his associate will manage to find the way out of the tunnel as they continue to make headway 300 miles to the north of the equator. “We’re fully focused. We’re trying to get the boat moving forward as fast as possible. We need to work. It’s a day where we must work, work, work”, explained the Florentine.