Dee Caffari made history today when she became the first woman to sail around twice around the world in different directions, both against and now with the prevailing winds and currents.
While her achievement of 2005 was impressive in itself, finishing sixth in this epic Vendee Globe race today, crossing the finish line at 13h 12′ 57″ GMT dwarves that feat, considering her first solo race in an Open 60 was only in November 2007.
Just three years ago, Dee Caffari sailed around the world against the prevailing winds and currents taking 178 days 03 hours 05 minutes and now on 16th February 2009, the British sailor has done it again, but this time from west to east in a race… A remarkable performance as only fifteen solo sailors have accomplished this feat in less than 100 days aboard a monohull.
It is a fairytale finish for Dee Caffari, considering that at the start on 9th November, she did nothing to hide her lack of racing experience. In two years of preparation with one aboard her new monohull, she clearly made a lot of progress. Her Owen Clarke designed boat, the sistership to Mike Golding’s, from the same mould and learning from some of the problems Golding had, proved to be very powerful, but Dee managed to adapt and stay with the twelve frontrunners until the Canaries.
Dee Caffari reaches the finish line on Aviva in sixth place at 13:12:57 hrs GMT
– Race time : 99 days, 1h, 10 minutes and 57 seconds
– Theoretical speed : 10.45 knots
– Distance covered on the water : 27,907 miles
– Average real speed: 11.74 knots
Dee finished 14 days, 22 hours and 1 minute after Michel Desjoyeaux.
Dees FIrst words as she arrived today
On her finish today: There were people there waving and saying hello and I thought that was pretty cool and then a random motor cruiser came up and shouted Go Dee! And I thought wow I’m close to the finish now. Then when everybody came out towards me… I knew there would be some Ribs and stuff, but this sight was brilliant and it’s such a gorgeous day. The sunset was beautiful and a lovely sunrise and I had dolphins, so I knew it was going to be a good day.
On finishing sixth: If you’d said that in the beginning, I’d have laughed in your face. I had an awesome start, then I made a few mistakes tactically in the Atlantic and the intensity of the race in the South Atlantic was just phenomenal. I sort of said, I’m not sure if I can do this. I was OK in the south, then I lost a bit of confidence in my first storm. Everybody was having lots of problems and that was when all the damage was happening and there was Yann’s injury and I lost all my confidence then.
Her race: Cape Horn was interesting. It was quite nice to hang out and know that the other two were with me. And I had an awesome Atlantic – I suddenly turned the corner and I’d grown into my boat. I did the repair on the main to keep it going a little bit longer. We just decided as a team to go for it and if it fell apart we’d deal with that later. I was really pleased to close the gap and then the Doldrums were a nightmare. A horrible two days, the worst two days of the race. I lost 300 miles to Brian in two days. Then I spent the North Atlantic closing the gap, but I just ran out of runway today. So I didn’t quite get him, but I’m happy to have pushed him all the way to the line.
On setting a new record as the first woman to sail round the world in both directions? That is so cool, isn’t it? I am so very excited, and I am really pleased, and pleased to do the job for Aviva, they have been great and to come in today in shiny yellow is very good.
