Inspirational British yachtswoman Dee Caffari will celebrate her 36th birthday tomorrow, 23 January, as she competes in the solo round the world yacht race the Vendée Globe.
- Solo yachtswoman, Dee Caffari, tomorrow celebrates her 36th birthday 6,000 miles from home in the Atlantic Ocean
- Special birthday messages from Sir Matthew Pinsent, Dame Kelly Holmes, Charley Boorman, Jonathan Edwards, Dean Macey and Colin Jackson
Inspirational British yachtswoman Dee Caffari will celebrate her 36th birthday tomorrow, 23 January, as she competes in the solo round the world yacht race the Vendée Globe. Caffari is 73 days into her third circumnavigation of the globe and has found support and birthday messages have been coming from far and wide.
To date Caffari has received just over 2,300 message from fans and followers from Canada and Italy to Switzerland and Iceland. However, the solo skipper was certainly not expecting birthday wishes from celebrities such as Olympic heroes Sir Matthew Pinsent, Dame Kelly Holmes, Jonathan Edwards, Dean Macey, Colin Jackson and actor and adventurer Charley Boorman.
Dee Caffari commented today: "It is just so cool that these guys have taken the time to remember that I'm out here and it's my birthday tomorrow. To have them celebrating it with me is such a morale boost. I seem to spend a lot of birthdays on my own at sea so it's just brilliant to have messages from my own sporting heroes!"
Four-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent sailed with Caffari in the 2007 Fastnet race when they took on some of the worst weather and storms of the past decade. He took time out this week to send Caffari this message:
"Can't imagine what you must be going through, but push yourself and your boat to the limit, I know you both can take it. Trust also in the fact that there are a lot of people wishing you the best and keeping our fingers crossed for you."
Actor and fellow adventurer Charley Boorman, of Long Way Round and By Any Means fame sent Dee this message: "I just wanted to say that I think it is amazing what you are doing on the Vendée Globe race and I have just heard that you've got some problems with your mainsail, I'd be terrified. I wouldn't do it! But then again you probably wouldn't do the Dakar Rally on a motorbike - you're water, I'm land!
"On a serious note we are very proud of you here at the Long Way Down, Long Way Round office and we are thinking of you and we have our fingers crossed. Good luck and we send all our love to you and be a good girl. We look forward to seeing you when you get back."
Like double gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes, who also sent Caffari a personal birthday message, the solo skipper is going for a double of her own - to become the first woman to sail solo, non-stop both ways around the world. Caffari has been supported by Aviva, the world's fifth largest international insurance group, since her first record breaking voyage in 2005/06 when she became the first woman to sail the "wrong" way around the world against the prevailing winds and currents. Now the former PE teacher from Hertfordshire is aiming to make history again.
This is the third time that Caffari has celebrated her birthday whilst racing at sea so she's well qualified at finding carefully hidden presents. However, following the damage to her mainsail it is clear that racing is still at the forefront of Caffari's mind. Today she reported: "I asked for a new mainsail but clearly no one was listening! I'm looking at what lies ahead between now and the finish and there is some very dynamic and complex weather. I'm sat between Bahrain Team Pindar and Akena Verandas and there is no way I want to finish behind them.
"We have the Doldrums to go which are very unpredictable and very stressful for a tired skipper and boat so there is a lot of potential to make gains but equally a lot of potential for things to go wrong. A lot of hard work is ahead. I mustn't forget we are going back into the Bay of Biscay in the middle of winter so that won't be easy either!"
Caffari is currently in seventh position, just 30 miles behind fellow Brit Brian Thompson onboard Bahrain Team Pindar and Frenchman Arnaud Boissieres onboard Akena Verandas. Current predictions show that Caffari is expected to cross the finish line and become a double world first record holder in mid-February.
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