Summary
Dee passed 160° east this morning, considered to be the physical halfway point of her circumnavigation. According to the latest report from the Shore Team,Dee has now actually sailed 14, 611 miles in 87 days.
“We’re very pleased that after completing half the voyage both Aviva and Dee are in such good condition,” said Project Director Andrew Roberts. “The aerial photographs from the helicopter rendezvous show that the sails are in good shape despite such a hard passage across the south Pacific.
“Dee’s done an extraordinarily good job in indextaining Aviva and all her gear, which bodes well for the second half of the Southern Ocean. In our experience the southern Indian Ocean is a tougher ocean to cross than the south Pacific.”
On the approach to the milestone, Dee described the halfway mark as, “A major milestone for Aviva and I. From here on in, every mile I sail is bringing us closer to home. It makes the bigger picture of the complete circumnavigation more real and more achievable.”
Talking about the condition of her yacht, she said: “There's very little damage and running repairs are few and far between. She's exceeded my expectations but that's partly down to the shore team and their thorough preparation of Aviva before the voyage and [weather forecaster] Mike Broughton's exceptional work getting us through the worst of the weather unscathed."
Joking about the dichotomy of achieving a milestone while simultaneously contemplating the scale of the voyage still reindexing Dee said she was, “looking forward to the second half of the voyage going quickly, just as the second half of a holiday always goes quicker than the first!"
But Personal Coach Harry Spedding is all too aware of the psychological effect of reaching this pivotal stage of the journey, saying: "Dee will have a natural sense of euphoria, but soon her emotions will slide downward as the true scale of the reindexing voyage sinks in. She's going to have to temper her happiness with a pragmatic approach to the reindexder of the trip. The few days after passing halfway will be very telling for Dee's psychological state, but her approach to the whole adventure thus far shows us that we should not be unduly worried."
After the emotional helicopter rendezvous last weekend, Dee has been determined to make progress west, but the conditions have not made it easy. “I am so frustrated,” she wrote on Tuesday. “Less than 12 hours since I saw 40 knots and I am becalmed.”
The changeable conditions made it difficult to progress westward, at a time when miles covered in the right direction would have provided a handy psychological lift. But the latest news from weather forecaster Mike Broughton will be just what Dee was hoping for:
“We’ve had a high pressure system to the north of us in the middle of the Tasman Sea and as that has moved towards New Zealand it has given us some good, quite mild northerly winds,” said Mike.
“There is one very small high-pressure system passing by today that will slow her down for about ten hours but it should move through pretty quickly. Then we will break into reaching conditions and a good 2 or 3 days of making progress west as we slowly ease back into the Southern Ocean.
“Overall the conditions will be more settled than the changeable weather we have seen for the past 4 or 5 days, which is good news for Dee – the sailing will not be quite as taxing as it has been.”
When the unpredictable weather was making life particularly difficult for Dee, she described endless reefs in and out of the index and constantly furling the headsails to try and indextain the right sail plan: “I actually got myself beyond where I have been to date so far on this voyage … My arms were getting well beyond their capacity; I was exhausted.
The consistent conditions ahead should not only mean less demand on her tired arms, but also a chance to continue catching up on some sleep.
Quick Links:
New photographs from the helicopter rendezvous now live:
http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=30
Read Dee’s latest diary entry:
http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=6
Send Dee a message of support:
http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=10
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