Dee Caffari on board Aviva is having to take evasive manoeuvres again today, as she faces the worst weather so far of her non-stop solo westabout circumnavigation.
Dee Caffari on board Aviva is having to take evasive manoeuvres again today, as she faces the worst weather so far of her non-stop solo westabout circumnavigation. Last weekend she took a dive south to sidestep a vicious secondary low-pressure system and today she is hiking north to avoid the path of a deep, fast-moving active low with 75 knots at its centre.
Even on her present northerly course she is seeing 50-55 knots, but weather router Mike Broughton says there has been little opportunity for tactical positioning as she, "tries to make a chicane through the storms."
As she veers away from this vigorous system we've taken avoiding action to the north," continued Mike, "but we don't want to go too far north because we've also got a fast-moving tropical storm moving south towards her with possibility of 70 knots plus on that.
"We'll head south later today to pass on the south side of the tropical storm or even sail through its centre. We've been looking at the formation of this storm for several days but we've not had much chance to sidestep it due to the fast-moving secondary low at the weekend and now this deep southern ocean low."
Project director Andrew Roberts recently said that of the 50 crossings of the Southern Ocean by Challenge yachts, this is the worst, and went on to comment today: "Challenge Business yachts are enormously strong and are built for these conditions, but Dee is still beating to windward in incredibly difficult and dangerous conditions so we must not under estimate the huge strain on the skipper, as well as the yacht itself. Dee’s resilience will be tested to the full."
In her latest diary entry Dee reports going into "survival mode," and in an email to her shore team in the early hours of this morning explained the conditions.
"I was heading about 230° and the wind was getting stronger and the barometer had gone from falling to dropping. The new weather fax came in and showed this low to the south was a dartboard with 75 knots at the centre and I was heading towards it. I knew I had to get out. The centre was 965mb and I was only at 981mb when I was already getting 50-knot gusts.
"I knew I had to tack and didn't really relish the opportunity as I had had so many disasters with big seas and big wind. Anyway after a half-hour build up I tacked. Not pretty, but no dramas, for a change.
"So I am now heading north and fortunately Mike (Broughton) was in agreement. I then settled in a steady 45 to 55 knots of breeze and the sun had the cheek to shine! Anyway we were rounding up so badly and every time the rig was getting a hammering from the headsail sheet. The leeward aft lower was already waving away in the sea and wind and the leeward D3 was as slack as you like. I needed to take some load off the rig. I furled the headsail completely and sailed on mainsail alone and made a steady 6 knots without all the smacking and drama of the headsail and sheet and rig, as darkness fell. This breeze is forecast for 12 hours and I am currently sat in 57.6 knots doing 7 knots.
"I would pay money to get off for a rest right now."
-ends-
Enquiries:
Karen Earl Sponsorship
Caroline Ayling +44 (0)207 202 2840
Dan Wedgwood +44 (0)207 202 2846
Aviva
Sue Winston
head of group media relations
+44 (0)20 7662 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
- 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.