Sewing workshop 

After rounding the Cape of Good Hope yesterday at 12:48 UTC, then, shortly afterwards, that of Agulhas, the most southerly point of the African continent and also the official reference point marking the passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, Giancarlo is continuing to make headway in tough conditions this Thursday, even if, like all his fellow competitors, the skipper of  Prysmian Group has slightly curved his course round to the north to avoid the worst of the bad weather. “We have a lot more wind in this area than the grib files were indicating”, commented the sailor this Thursday morning, after a particularly tricky day yesterday. Whilst making headway under reduced sail and keen to reduce it down even further, the skipper found it impossible to furl in his headsail. The reason for this was a broken sheath on the furling line, which usually enables the drum to be turned up forward, and subsequently allows all the sails attached to the bowsprit to be furled in. “Having this sail aloft and being unable to furl it in was obviously very stressful and I didn’t stop for a moment in by battle to resolve the issue. It made it a particularly testing day. At one point, I literally fell asleep. I didn’t even hear the boat’s alarms. I was completely exhausted. Fortunately, I was able to discuss with the team’s rigging guy to understand the how and why of it, but I spent the whole day trimming the boat and sewing. I worked on it for up to 2 hours this morning, but I still have part of the repair to finish. I’m going to have a good breakfast, get a bit of rest and go up forward to finish what I need to do. The good news is that conditions are easing a little”, concluded Giancarlo, who is currently lying in 10th position, some 300 miles offshore of the tip of Africa.