Tuesday 24 November 2009

TJV: Caffari and Thompson banking the miles ahead of pit-stop in the Transat Jacques Vabre

by Kelly Russell

Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson are continuing to push Aviva hard in the 4800 mile Transat Jacques Vabre. With a pit stop to collect a part for their faulty generator scheduled for tomorrow, the British duo need to take advantage of the current fast sailing conditions ahead of the inevitable loss of miles.

The positioning within the middle of the IMOCA Open 60 fleet remains close, with just 18 miles separating Veolia Environnement, W Hotels and Aviva.
The 10h00 race ranking positioned Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson, onboard Aviva, in eighth place, 903 miles behind race leader Safran.

Dee Caffari and Brian Thompson’s latest diary entry received on 21 November 2009 at 0725 GMT:

“We are now happily settled sailing in the deep trades. We have a steady 18 knots of wind and we have set the spinnaker. Now is the race to break through into the Caribbean Sea and gybe cleverly to get to Costa Rica first in our little group. The competition is fierce and it is great to be close racing all the way to the finish. Must not forget at all the fact that 1876 took the northerly route and are approaching fast with a slightly shorter distance to go to the finish.

"Aviva and her happy crew are all well and enjoying the sun, flat water and now fast sailing towards our destination. I received an email from Sam onboard Artemis the other day and it was great to hear from her. It was just like the Vendée Globe again with emails with Sam, chatting with Brian, now all we need are naughty sayings from Cali and the gang is all back together again.”

Aviva Ocean Racing
Transat Jacques Vabre

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