Dee Caffari had never sailed single-handed or even been alone for more than a few hours before leaving Portsmouth last November to embark on her gruelling attempt to become the first woman to sail round the world solo and non-stop against the prevailing winds and currents.
- Solo yachtswoman Dee Caffari reaches latest landmark in voyage after 100 days at sea and has no hiding place from imminent storm
Dee Caffari had never sailed single-handed or even been alone for more than a few hours before leaving Portsmouth last November to embark on her gruelling attempt to become the first woman to sail round the world solo and non-stop against the prevailing winds and currents. But today she marks her 100th day at sea in the depths of the Southern Ocean and tonight faces what weather forecaster Mike Broughton describes as a "full-on" storm.
Sailing south of Australia with just under 11,000 miles to the finish line, Caffari is still in the most difficult and potentially dangerous phase of her voyage.
Speaking during her latest Aviva Challenge podcast, Caffari says: “Even when doing the sea trials for Aviva, although I did all the sailing, I always had someone else onboard with me … Before this adventure I’d never really spent any time on my own. I’ve never even lived on my own, I’ve always shared accommodation. We’re talking hours spent on my own as opposed to days.”
Doctor Jean-Yves Chauve works with the world’s top solo round-the-world racers, and says mental problems are almost always encountered: “For some people (round-the-world solo) sailing is a dream, but sometimes the reality is not the same as the dream and the navigation in the south is very, very difficult. Some of them are surprised because they feel they are in danger.”
Peter Suedfeld, Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, is a world-leading authority on the psychology of isolation and comments that, while there are negative consequences of extreme solitude in challenging environments, overall the effects are not always adverse.
“There comes a time when people really crave stimulation and there are ways of achieving that. One way is to become ever more sensitive to the outside world so that you notice things that you would not have noticed otherwise, and that, in some cases, is very beneficial.
“To the great extent they are positive effects - solitude gives you a chance to reflect on things and to explore your own feelings, your own emotions, your own ambitions and so on.”
“But in other cases people start turning to stimulation that is generated from within their own body or mind and, in many of the cases of single-handed sailing, there have been what we call ‘sense presence experiences’, which is where the individual basically starts to hallucinate. When you have periods of boredom punctuated by periods of high arousal, these problems go on and people get more tired and more stressed and their decision- making starts to deteriorate. They’re not able to process as much information as effectively as they would under normal circumstances.”
Caffari says: “The reality of being alone has been the hardest challenge of all. It took me most of the Atlantic leg to come to terms and address the issue of loneliness.” But now she has become accustomed to her environment, returning to civilisation can be a daunting prospect.
“My life with Aviva in our own little world is all I know at the moment. Emails keep me up to date with news but I can’t imagine simple living tasks such as shopping. When you count up the days they have passed really quickly, but at other times I feel as if this whole voyage is taking an eternity.”
As if to remind her of her solitude, she was forced to scale the mast on Sunday to try and repair her wind instruments, but was stranded halfway up the rig, stuck in a dangerous situation with darkness and a squall closing in.
“I thought ‘right I’m stuck’ and nobody could help me because there isn’t anyone here,” says Caffari, “it was just before it was getting dark so the light was fading. I did have a big panic, but I just kept working at it and working at it.
“It wasn’t until I got all the gear away and back down below that I actually got affected by it and I was really panicking and cried about it afterwards. I wanted someone to look after me then but of course there was no-one here.”
Caffari sustained bruising to her left arm after, “taking a beating and being thrown around the rig,” but is recovering well. Unfortunately, the immediate forecast will not provide any respite: weather forecaster Mike Broughton has reported winds could reach speeds of 60 knots and above.
“On Tuesday night and into Wednesday a very vigorous cold front with winds in the high 50s and low 60s is going to generate violent conditions and there will be no hiding place.
“Looking forward to Friday we’re going to change tactics and head southwest to go underneath a secondary low-pressure system so we avoid the stronger winds to the north. But for tonight Dee will be facing a ‘full-on’ storm.”
You can hear Caffari’s latest podcast, read her regular logs and follow her progress at www.avivachallenge.com.
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Photography:
Images available, please contact Caroline Ayling: +44 (0)207 202 2840
Footage:
Footage available, please contact Caroline Ayling: +44(0)207 202 2840
Enquiries:
Karen Earl Sponsorship
Caroline Ayling +44 (0)207 202 2840
Dan Wedgwood +44 (0)207 202 2846
Aviva
Sue Winston +44 (0)207 662 8221
+44 (0)7800 699 661
Notes to editors:
Aviva and The Aviva Challenge
- www.avivachallenge.com includes a voyage tracker, Dee’s daily logs, an image library, profiles of Dee and her shore team, the yacht Aviva and further information about The Aviva Challenge
- Aviva is the world’s sixth-largest insurance group based on gross world-wide premiums and market capitalisation (at 31 December 2004); it is one of the leading providers of life and pensions in Europe and has substantial businesses in other markets around the world. Aviva’s main activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with world-wide total income of £40 billion and assets under management of £280 billion at 31 December 2004
- "Forward thinking" is Aviva’s first-ever pan-European advertising campaign. The print, on-line and television corporate campaign, targeting Europe’s opinion-former community, will run until April 2006. As part of the campaign, Aviva has also commissioned RSA Films to make five film shorts for CNBC TV, featuring people who have a particularly powerful vision of the future and celebrating the remarkable achievements of these individuals
- The current world record for a non-stop single-handed circumnavigation of the globe against the prevailing winds and currents is 122 days, 14 hours, 3 minutes and 49 seconds and is held by Frenchman Jean Luc Van Den Heede.
- Challenge Business is the organiser for "The Aviva Challenge", co-ordinating the shore team and logistics behind Dee Caffari’s solo, non stop circumnavigation
- Challenge Business is a market leader in creating, managing and promoting World Class events - providing the opportunity for ordinary people to do the extraordinary, for the professionals to reach for the extreme and visionary businesses to achieve amazing results
- Challenge Business uses the participation and passion of adventure sport to create integrated marketing programmes for innovative businesses and has a sponsorship community of many hundreds of blue chip companies world-wide.