A sailor's life is made of constant choices. Sometimes it's a matter of deciding between an infinite number of options, as happened two days ago; other times there's only one fork in the road, but it leads to very different paths with major implications. Last night, unlike Sam Goodchild who is leading the fleet on "MACIF", Ambrogio chose to leave the passage between Ireland and Great Britain to the east and instead aim for the route west of Ireland — probably slower, and more conservative.

"This is the first time I've made a choice like this. I'm not avoiding the eastern route to gain miles or look for calmer seas — the conditions are tough over there too. It's that the passage between Ireland and England worries me: there are complicated manoeuvres, fishing boats, unmarked buoys and a lot of traffic. Especially at the entrance to the channel there's very little room, and we'd get there with 30 knots and very big waves. A few hours ago, on top of that, I had an autopilot issue that stopped working for a while. If something like that happened during such a delicate passage, it would be real trouble. So, on my first solo IMOCA race, I just don't feel right about it. It's hard to say, because I know I'll lose a huge number of miles, but everything has its own time, and this isn't the race where I want to risk so much for second place."

A choice that clearly reflects Ambrogio's approach: aware of the boat's potential, but equally clear-eyed in assessing risk and in prioritising the project's long-term vision over chasing an immediate result.

Yesterday had been a thoroughly positive day. "Allagrande Mapei" had positioned herself perfectly relative to the first front of the low pressure system, managing — through a series of gybes — to first overtake Violette Dorange's "Initiative Cœur" and then close in on Élodie Bonafous's "Association Petit Prince – Quéguiner". And she's still flying, averaging 25.3 knots over the last 4 hours!

The feeling on board remains extremely encouraging:

"So, since we rounded the Arctic Circle we're finally sailing downwind, in conditions where the boat is definitely operating on another level of performance. We already knew that, but with the foils moved, the difference is maybe even more marked: these old foils are even less powerful in this position, which should be reversed with the new foils. Either way, the boat is really impressive: downwind, with 25 knots of wind, she's locked at over 25 knots of boat speed. Often these are conditions where you get a bit scared, but here the boat feels safe — she spikes to 28, 29, and comes back to 24… it's really incredible. The complete opposite of how she behaves upwind."

At this stage, the IMOCAs are crossing a series of exclusion zones north of Great Britain: the Biodiversity Protection Zones (BPZ), areas established to reduce the risk of collisions with marine megafauna, particularly whales and other large cetaceans.

All that's left now is to watch how this first major split in the race unfolds. Over the coming hours, "Allagrande Mapei" will hold her own route west of Ireland… but what choices will her direct rivals make? It will be an interesting test between different strategies, with Ambrogio favouring a more conservative approach focused on managing the boat through one of the most demanding phases of the race.