With hours to go before the arrival of the worst storm of this edition of the Vendée Globe, Dee Caffari is following the advice of Méteo France onboard her Open 60 yacht Aviva.
With hours to go before the arrival of the worst storm of this edition of the Vendée Globe, Dee Caffari is following the advice of Méteo France onboard her Open 60 yacht Aviva. Despite feeling apprehensive about the impending conditions, Caffari is pleased to have her friend and ongoing race rival Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas) within close proximity.
At 6.20pm GMT last night, Caffari commented: "The aim is to hang out around Cape Horn and the centre of the low will pass overhead, then we will experience south east to south west strong winds as we get the cold feel of the west of the low as it tracks east. Slowly with much reduced sail we can follow it from about tomorrow [Friday] afternoon hoping for it to move ahead of us. This should hopefully see us miss the worst of the weather.
"All being well I should be through the worst of it all late tomorrow night. In the mean time it will be a testing twenty four hours, then we can celebrate Cape Horn."
The Aviva Ocean Racing team can confirm that Caffari has now rounded Cape Horn but is expecting storm force winds with gusts of up to 85 knots to last into Saturday morning with gale force winds remaining until Sunday night.
Mike Broughton, Caffari's weather routing trainer added: "It looks like Dee's plan is to prudently keep Aviva close to the very centre of the storm and should avoid the worst of the northerly winds, but will get the full blast of the storm force south west winds as the low pressure moves past to the east.
"From Friday early evening, the winds will start to peak and the waves build quite fast... with the shallower waters of the continental shelf, the waves will be much more steep than usual for the Southern Ocean and that can be a real danger."
Despite biding her time before she rounded Cape Horn, Caffari did not have a chance to put her feet up. In addition to patching Aviva's mainsail to give it the best chance of survival through the storm, Caffari also replaced her raw water pump after finding a problem with the impellor (rotor blade).
The 10am race ranking positioned Caffari in seventh position within one mile of Arnaud Boissières (Akena Vérandas).
Dee Caffari's latest diary entry received on Friday 16 January at 4.30am GMT:
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"I have had the most surreal night. It has felt so strange just sailing and not trying to go anywhere.
"The most amazing fact of the night was that I was sailing under South America upwind. Now twice before I have sailed upwind in this neck of the woods but I never expected it on this race. So three times round Cape Horn and every time upwind, can you believe it?
"Aviva, true to form as always became a land magnet during our tour of the Continental shelf and we visited the Islands of Diego Ramirez. In that area and we were there for a while, I was surrounded with dolphins and countless birds. It was awesome.
"It was also at this time where I was struggling to stay away from the Islands that the centre of the low came over me and I had no wind and what little my instruments thought there was, was from all over the place. Here we go I thought the time has come. I was driving to try and stay away from the islands and get some boat speed. The clouds were building to my south and I knew rain and wind was coming. As I popped below to get my wet weather jacket I noticed we needed to charge. I turned the generator on and it started and stopped. Now was not a good time. Twice this happened and then I knew I had to become a mechanic. However, with rain and wind about to arrive, Islands close by and a storm to prepare for having a generator in pieces was far from ideal. The reality was I needed to charge.
"A quick assessment and I needed to change the raw water pump, actually the impellor, but it is so fiddly to do, we had agreed as a team that to change the unit was preferable then I could change the impellor in my own time and it would be ready as a spare.
"Time was now of the essence though and I think I even impressed myself that 40 minutes later I was back on deck sailing with the new breeze and the generator charging my batteries.
"The next bizarre moment was not long after this as the wind built quickly as expected. I put my forth reef in my mainsail with 20 knots of breeze. Hardly racing trim, but we needed to go slow to allow the depression to move and I knew that shortly I would be faced with huge winds and I needed to protect what little there is of my sail. I spent some time trying to cover the exposed fibres with bits of good sail and tying it up so now my fingers are crossed that it survives. Next stop is changing my staysail for the storm staysail and then I am as ready as I am going to be to face the music of our parting gift from the Southern Ocean."
Dee and Aviva
Aviva Ocean Racing summary
Record-breaking British yachtswoman Dee Caffari, who sailed into the record books in May 2006 by becoming the first woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world against the prevailing winds and currents, is attempt her next "world first" by competing in the Vendée Globe yacht race. Caffari is attempting to become the first woman to sail solo and non-stop both ways around the world.
Further information on Dee Caffari and her Aviva Ocean Racing campaign can be found at www.avivaoceanracing.com.
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For further information and interview requests contact:
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Kelly Russell
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E-mail: Kelly.russell@synergy-sponsorship.com
Website: www.avivaoceanracing.com
Images: www.avivaoceanracing.com/images
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