Solo-Around-Nonstop - Dee Caffari/Aviva www.avivachallenge.com - zur Übersicht 12.01.2006 “I got well and truly beaten up last night. 50 knots true.” In Brief - Caffari goes up against first ‘vigorous’ Southern Ocean low - Winds up to 50 knots during the night - The autopilot “did well, but was also a complete nightmare too,” according to Dee Nur ein Nickerchen am Kartentisch Summary She knew it was coming. The tension had been building but all solo sailor Dee Caffari could do was sit and wait for her first Southern Ocean depression to roll in from the direction she is aiming for. “I got well and truly beaten up last night. 50 knots true,” said Dee in her latest update this afternoon. After rounding Cape Horn in pleasant sightseeing conditions just over a week ago she had a difficult first night adjusting to a new ocean and falling temperatures but the conditions have since reindexed relatively calm. Then the inevitable arrived last night, and arrived fast. “The barometer dropped like a stone from 989 to 980 in 4 hours. I had my heart in my throat.” Dee has already talked about adjusting to life in the Southern Ocean and the need to acclimatise to a new environment going hand in hand with a new mental approach to cope with the conditions. Last night was a fiercely rapid transition. Caffari’s weather router Mike Broughton said yesterday: “Having had a tricky couple of days in a huge area of light winds in southwest corner of the South Pacific, Dee is now into the full frontal ‘head-bashing’ vigorous southern ocean low-pressure system. It will pass close to the south and she’ll be beating into strong gales and huge seas in the next 24 hours.” Dee donned her foulies and reduced sail as the wind picked up strength: “I ended up with the staysail furled away and eventually I had probably only the last third of the headsail out and a three-reefed indexsail. The waves were the worst; they had the whole deck on the leeward side underwater quite a lot. I sat watching the aft lower through the galley window swaying with the force of the water and the breeze, not a friendly sight.” The relatively light Southern Ocean conditions after Cape Horn were a timely stroke of luck for the skipper who started the New Year with rejuvenated determination having solved a fault that almost brought her Aviva Challenge to an abrupt end. A serious problem with the autopilot system was solved in a race against time in conjunction with her shore team in Plymouth, UK. The first major test was a changeover from the primary system to the redundant system to ensure that she had two fully functioning autopilots and the facility to revert between them in the event of any further faults. It was a nerve-racking moment for the skipper who had reached the limits of psychological and emotional stress contemplating failure at the hands of her autopilot system, but it worked. Aviva’s first round against the Southern Ocean last night was another important test for the repaired system, which is vital to the future of her circumnavigation. This was Dee’s assessment: “The pilot did well but it was also a complete nightmare too. I guess I wouldn't want to drive either in those conditions. About five times the 103 fault came up and I cleared it and it went back to work. From what I can remember at the time most of them were with big waves or with the boat rounding up with a flogging headsail and it not getting her back again. I also had it on wind for a short time but it didn't like that, I would guess at too much movement at the top of the rig. “The worst was when a big wave rounded us up and the pilot didn't get her back in time and we tacked. I had already tacked in a lull of 45 knots and it was hideous, so now I was pinned. It took me 30 minutes to get the boat back and tack. The waves stopped me most of the time; I was just cringing at the rig with everything loaded the wrong way or shaking around. Good job we always have both runners on with three reefs.” Dee is hoping the conditions will moderate through the course of this evening so she can try and catch some sleep, eat and cash in some of the spare hours of heater time she has accumulated. She will probably also be contemplating the distance she still has to travel in the Southern Ocean and the potential number of depressions that may come across her path along the way. Quick Links Dee is posting a full description of her battle against 50 knot winds tomorrow, but an email update she wrote to her shore team can be found here: http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=6 The messages of support have become an integral part of Dee’s routine, click here send Dee a message or ask her a question: http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=10 Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE