Global Solo Challenge: Cape Horn lives up to expectations for Andrea Mura and Francois Gouin
by Marco Nannini / Global Solo Challenge 8 Feb 2024 06:22 PST
Andrea Mura - Vento di Sardegna © Andrea Mura
What an incredible week it has been in the Global Solo Challenge, with storms, apprehension, big seas and strong winds and with the legendary Cape Horn in the background like a trophy to pick up in victory.
The palpable joy and relief of Andrea Mura's celebrations on Vento di Sardegna, who dedicated his rounding to the late Gigi Riva, a football legend who recently passed away and who had christened the boat when it was launched. An emotional moment that conveyed the pride in the achievement, the relief after several stormy days, the incredible joy in achieving a goal that had been chased for many years.
Less than 24 hours later, in the Chilean afternoon of February 7th, Francois Gouin on Kawan3 Unicancer passed the longitude of the lighthouse on the island of Cabo de Hornos. In his video taken during the rounding he repeatedly expressed his joy and happiness for his long voyage and navigation in the great south. The eyes and expressions of each skipper upon rounding Cape Horn speak more than just the words they pronounce. It is such an incredible achievement that I think even grasping its full magnitude will take time for each of them.
Philippe Delamere, Cole Brauer, Ronnie Simpson, Andrea Mura and Francois Gouin have reached the summit of their journey and can look forward to their way back to base camp which should become progressively easier as the storms are left behind and the temperatures rise. Riccardo Tosetto will be rounding later today and has shared with us the photo of a beautiful sunrise of what will forever be a very special day for him.
The Italian skipper, on his JPK Class40 #60 Obportus, has had a rough ride to Cape Horn, having moved further north than Andrea Mura and Francois Gouin in the previous week to avoid a ridge of high pressure, he ended up paying a heavy price for his choice. The area of light winds pushed further north giving his direct sparring partner Francois a clear advantage. His northerly route kept him in an area where he could not avoid the oncoming strong winds, and was hit by a steady 50-55 knots blow and even experienced a squall with peaks of 70 knots which laid him flat for moments that felt like eternity.
Francois and Riccardo have been at sea for 100 days now and it is therefore fully understandable that they look forward to heading north to better conditions. For reference Charles Caudrelier on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, who rounded the horn two days ago took just 30 days from Brest to Cape Horn! Amazing.
In fact, I wonder if Cape Horn has ever been this busy with so many boats from different events all rounding Cape Horn at the same time. As of 0800 UTC, 0500 local time on January 6th, in the middle of the night PenDuickVI skippered by Marie Tabarly was the first boat to round the cape in Ocean Globe Race. With a 73ft ketch, the sea state encountered in the previous 24 hours was intense but not worrying, as displacement and size matter indeed in the south. Next to round was the Italian Swan 65 Translated9 skippered by Simon Curwen (Owned and Co-skippered by Marco Trombetti). The following day it was the turn of Andrea Mura on his Open 50 Vento di Sardegna. The all female crew of Maiden in the OGR rounded the cape at about the same time as Francois Gouin in the GSC.
Riccardo Tosetto will be rounding just behind Spirit of Helsinki and Nepturne and ahead of Triana with a further 7 boats in the Ocean Globe Race that are still in the Pacific with Sterna and Explorer nicely covering David Linger's back on Koala Maoli. The American skipper will be the 6th boat to round Cape Horn in the Global Solo Challenge. He is sailing in fairly strong winds but should have a clear path ahead for a fast run towards the Atlantic.
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