Solo-Around-Nonstop - Dee Caffari/Aviva www.avivachallenge.com - zur Übersicht 13.03.2006 “This is going to be a fight all the way to the end.” In Brief - “Horrific” – Dee encounters the worst seas of the voyage - Focus is on personal safety as risk of injury hits peak - Exhausted after four storms in two weeks, Dee is willing to exchange the icebergs for flying fish and looks forward to leaving the Southern Ocean behind Summary Following the damage sustained to the stanchions and Yankee sheet last week, Dee reported:“The Southern Ocean is making me pay for every mile I make across its vast ocean. This is going to be a fight all the way to the end.” In the latest Aviva Challenge podcast interview, now live on the website, Elaine Bunting discusses the unenviable series of recent challenges, from seemingly endless storm systems, to iceberg fields and now urgent repair work, noting that even Dee had trouble conveying it all. To make matters worse, the seas she encountered this weekend as she battled the latest tropical storm were “horrific”; the worst she has seen on the voyage so far. Furthermore, when Elaine questioned Dee about the increased risk of injury in rough weather, Dee said it was “massive” and “probably the worst it’s been for me on deck because the water was sweeping from the aft quarter across the deck. “If I did actually injure myself it would be horrendous,” continued Dee, “…it could incapacitate you massively and considering I’m the only one onboard to do anything that’s quite a major ordeal.” Personal Coach Harry Spedding reported today that he received a phone call from Dee on Sunday to let him know she had made it through the latest storm, which sounds like a routine call, but Harry says it had a deeper significance: “This is not something that Dee would normally do, and it is a sign of how relieved she was to have got safely through this latest ordeal … Each low that Dee has had to contend with has drained her energy slightly, unsurprisingly she is extremely tired and physically drained.” Elaine put it in a nutshell when she told Dee she had been through an astonishing four storms with 50-knot winds in just two weeks. And while she has come back fighting from each one, including a severe psychological low that took her to “rock bottom”, she is clearly ready to leave the Southern Ocean behind. On Sunday she wrote: “I am not sure if I am going soft the longer I stay out here or the conditions are getting worse but either way I think I have definitely earned my Southern Ocean badge and will welcome my departure from its clutches. I will happily trade icebergs for flying fish, (and that's saying something!), and leave the cold crisp air for the sweaty heat of the tropics.” Today she reinforced the point, saying that, “Conditions are more difficult to deal with, as Aviva and I are getting more and more tired.” But it is not all doom and gloom, although increasingly exhausted from the seemingly endless battering she has received during what Harry Spedding called, “an intense year for the depressions that circle the planet at those latitudes,” she has made successful repairs over the weekend. Project Director Andrew Roberts said on Friday: “Despite a continual beating, Dee has been hard at work repairing damage to Aviva. This morning the shore team received news that the most vital of the repairs has been done.” The Yankee sheet repair had to wait for lighter conditions, although even when the wind dropped sufficiently, it was a physically demanding job for one person, made harder by the fact that she carried out the work at night. “The plan sounds good,” wrote Dee, “but the reality is far from smooth, it resembles more of a wrestle on the foredeck where the sail is definitely in control.” The Yankee headsail is the “powerhouse” of the yacht according to Andrew Roberts, and Dee fixed it just in time for the “heart-in-mouth” sailing with “gusts in excess of 50 knots” when she battled through the tropical storm. Now the outlook is promising and the start of her 17th week at sea is set to be dominated by high pressure and much milder conditions. “The conditions have eased completely as we have neared a high-pressure cell,” writes Dee in her diary today. “We are back to full sails again and the sea has returned to a gentle ocean swell. It hardly seems possible that 24 hours ago we were sailing through fifty knots and operating on pure survival.” Quick Links Listen to the latest Aviva Challenge podcast interview. This week, Elaine Bunting also talks to Dr. Spike Briggs, part of Dee’s medical team and one of Britain’s best-loved yachtsmen, Pete Goss, who recounts performing an operation on himself at sea. http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=32 Read Dee’s latest diary entry: http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=6 Read Personal Coach Harry Spedding’s latest commentary: http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=53 See the latest photographs taken by Dee: http://www.avivachallenge.com/index.asp?pageid=48 Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE