16.05.2006
Dee Caffari has just 522 miles to go after almost six months at sea
Days at sea: 176
Distance to finish: 522 miles
Position: Approaching the finish line
Dee and Aviva are currently on course to cross the finish line on the 18th May and her homecoming to Southampton is expected to be on Sunday 21st May
Latest News
Far from spending the last few days of her marathon voyage reflecting on her achievement and savouring her time at sea, Dee has been battling with yet more autopilot problems that left her feeling “absolutely miserable”.
On Saturday night the system failed and Aviva was “turning circles in 30 knots of wind.” The conditions were too rough to attempt a repair so Dee was forced to steer through the night. Exhausted and lonely, the following day brought a cacophony of alarms and she could only leave the helm for a short few minutes to communicate with her shore team.
The autopilot first failed when Dee returned to the Northern hemisphere, and the repair allowed air into the system so she had to switch to the back-up system. This weekend exactly the same fault struck the back-up system and Dee was faced with a serious problem.
Thankfully the shore team announced late yesterday afternoon that a solution has been found. Project Director Andrew Roberts reported:
“A relatively simple repair has successfully restored Aviva’s ability to self-steer, minus the alarms. Our electronics specialist Keith Baxter effectively advised Dee on carrying out the ‘re-plumbing’ work to restore the autopilot, using a system of manual valves that were installed when it was built for this eventuality.
“The boat has been at sea for over 4,000 hours now so the components are being tested to their limits. However, the autopilots have in fact proved incredibly reliable for the job that we have asked them to do as no autopilot system has ever been required to continuously work against the prevailing winds and currents for such a long time.”
Now Dee is recovering from the ordeal and this morning's diary explains her huge sense of relief at finding a solution:
"I did all the tasks on the list and heh presto I was steering with pilot 1 again. I reset the sails and waited. All seemed to be well. I tidied up and called the shore team. I was just so relieved it had worked that I burst into tears. Yet again they had saved the day and Keith was my hero once more. Now it seems that my dreams of how I was going to spend the reindexing miles may come true. At the very least I can now use the heads in peace!
"My tears were tears of joy, relief, and tiredness and pent up emotions from the last 48 hours. The previous two days of autopilot stresses had caught up with me. A wave of relief came over me and I didn't know whether to sleep or eat first."
Updates on Dee’s progress to the finish line will be posted on www.avivachallenge.com
Links
Read Dee’s latest log:
Read the latest Shore Team commentary:
Send Dee a message:
|
