Day Ten on board Aviva Ocean Racing in the 2009 TJV. Image copyright Aviva Ocean Racing.
by Kelly Russell
After a successful tenth night onboard Aviva, Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson have regained sixth position and passed the halfway mark in the Transat Jacques Vabre.
Having slipped down the IMOCA Open 60 fleet whilst struggling to replace lost wind instruments and continued attempts to repair a faulty generator, the British duo have worked hard to return to racing and saw their efforts pay off as they passed both W Hotels and 1876 overnight.
Harry Spedding, Aviva Ocean Racing Campaign Manager added:
“Now is the time of year that the early boats will be leaving Europe and heading for the Caribbean. The idea is that you make your way south until you reach the Trade Winds that blow from the African Coast to the Caribbean, then you are in warm, steady, downwind conditions.
“Dee, Brian and Aviva have fought their way south through some horrendous conditions, and have now reached the early trade winds. They now have the conditions that they were no doubt dreaming of, or even praying for over the last week. Wearing shorts and flying the spinnaker, warmth from the sun, and just the occasional squall. Though no doubt as things warm up the conditions below deck will be slightly less pleasant!
“The difficulty now lies in choosing the fastest passage through the Windward Islands. Originally the skippers were talking about passing through to the north, probably close to the Dominican Republic. The weather has forced them quite far south, so maybe now they are looking at passing near Grenada or St Lucia. There are light winds behind the islands, and acceleration zones between them. So as the weekend approaches they will be picking their routes carefully, aiming to get a tactical advantage for the run through the Caribbean Sea to Costa Rica.”
The 10h00 race ranking positioned Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson, onboard Aviva, in sixth place, 526 miles behind race leader Safran.
Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson’s latest diary entry received on 18 November 2009 at 0742 GMT:
“We have just had a beautiful nights sailing with no squalls or freaky wind and clear skies with stars all the way. Sleep has come easy to both Brian and I as we are working quite hard at the moment to stay on the pace in the dying wind and also fulfil jobs during the day.
There is some great banter and shared jobs which has just highlighted how great two handed sailing is as there is always someone else there!
The convergence of this second group is interesting as we all push hard in a South Westerly direction, there is still a long way to go and runway is running out which limits tactics until we begin the final stage of the race in the Caribbean Sea.”
Aviva Ocean Racing
Transat Jacques Vabre
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