Elodie Bonafous is smiling again, having clawed her way back into podium contention on the Route du Rhum after hours becalmed and fuming.
A windless hole had tested her patience to the limit, but the skipper has found breeze again, and with it, her enthusiasm has returned. She now sits third in her class, closing in on the final miles to Guadeloupe.
Pétole, the sailor's curse of drifting helplessly with sails flapping, had put her progress and her mood on hold. Watching the rankings slip away with nothing to be done about it is one of the most trying tests in solo ocean racing.
Bonafous, skipper of Petits Princes Queguinier, has come through that frustration and is now pushing hard for the finish. Third in class is no small achievement given what she has just endured out on the water.
"A podium would be an immense satisfaction after such an intense race," she said.
She is riding a mix of relief and ambition. The final stretch to Guadeloupe still has to be sailed, and anything can happen in the closing miles of a transatlantic solo race. With wind back in her sails and a result within reach, Bonafous is making the most of the conditions while they last.
For New Zealand followers of the Route du Rhum, these late-race swings are a familiar story. This edition has already produced its share of fortune reversed and redeemed, from Sébastien Simon's clawback into contention after a troubled start in the IMOCA fleet to the battered but proud Ocean Fifty sailors who came through a brutal run of storms to reach Guadeloupe. Solo ocean racing rarely rewards patience with a straight run home, and the final approach has humbled plenty of sailors before her.
Right now, though, momentum is with her.
