In Italian there is a phrase that doesn't translate directly into English: "tutti i nodi vengono al pettine" — all knots come to the comb, meaning every decision eventually has its consequences. That is exactly the feeling on this final morning of the Vendée Arctique. "Allagrande Mapei" and "Association Petits Princes – Quéguiner" split their routes more than two days ago, over 900 miles further north. Between the two boats there was up to 200 miles of lateral separation and, most significantly, the entire island of Ireland: Ambrogio chose to pass west of the island, while Élodie sailed through the channel between Ireland and Great Britain.

At the time of the decision, Ambrogio estimated he could lose between 50 and 80 miles. Now that the two routes have finally converged, the gap that built up has turned out to be smaller than expected. The risks of the eastern route, however, proved very real: "Association Petits Princes – Quéguiner" received a twelve-hour penalty for entering the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) of the North Channel, a maritime traffic separation zone located north of the Ireland-Great Britain channel and not shown on the race's official tracking. The penalty must be served at sea before the finish.

Ambrogio meanwhile helps us understand the weather situation of the past few hours:

"We're in a situation that in French is called a 'col' and in Italian a 'sella barica' — a barometric saddle: meaning we're caught between two ridges and two lows, so basically the wind doesn't know what to do because there's no real driving force. We've crossed through this col where there was still a bit of air moving and we managed not to stop — usually it's more erratic than this. We've had a first right-hand shift, the easterly is now coming from south-south-west; and now there's the other ridge also pushing from the west, which will arrive gradually and shift the wind further right all the way to west-north-west. And with that wind we should make it to the finish — except that ridge wind is typically very unstable, it goes up and down in strength and angle, so it won't be a quiet night."

After the cold and strong winds of recent days, sailing has become pleasant again: the milder weather and sunshine of yesterday gave Ambrogio the chance to recover his energy for what will be the final hours of the race. "Allagrande Mapei" is in third place with a comfortable margin over "Initiative Cœur", but Élodie still has to serve her 12-hour penalty. It will be a long day in the Bay of Biscay, between waiting games, chases and positioning: the finish is expected tonight at Les Sables d'Olonne!