| At Sea. Aviva Challenge: Dee Caffari has adverse current, less than 550 miles from Cape of Good Hope |
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| Saturday, 01 April 2006 | |
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Aviva team: Dee is now less than 550 miles from the Cape of Good Hope. Currently reaching in winds of 16-20 knots achieving consistent boat speeds of 9-10 knots, the conditions sound like a dream come true, but in reality life is still “extremely frustrating” for the solo skipper. “I have been pushing Aviva quite hard,” wrote Dee in her latest diary entry. “The water has been relatively flat … I was pleased until I saw the speed over the ground on the GPS. It was showing a good four knots slower than my boat speed. How depressing! It seems that we have found a counter current from a back eddy and as we have been sailing west, it has been flowing east.” Dee’s Personal Coach Harry Spedding said today: “The last few days have been incredibly frustrating due to a counter current holding up progress, but in typical style Dee has managed to pick herself up again. She is back in a good psychological state and pushing hard to get in to the Agulhas Current and round the Cape of Good Hope.” Despite this latest setback, the outlook for rounding the Cape is still looking promising. Weather forecaster Mike Broughton said yesterday: “Thankfully the conditions are not conspiring to create the particularly foul seas associated with this area. The north-easterly breeze looks set to carry Dee through, allowing a run downwind, but I have still told her to shut the hatches. Just because it won’t be as bad as normal and the sun is likely to be out, she could still see steep-sided breaking waves.” Mike went on to explain that the Agulhas Current is the second fastest ocean current in the world, the fastest being the Gulf Stream close to Florida. “But the difference at the Cape of Good Hope,” he said, “is the tendency for the Agulhas Current to run directly against the strong prevailing westerly winds, which creates the problems for sailors.” Although Mike was quick to point out that, as we have seen, conditions can change very rapidly, Dee is aware of her predicted good fortune, having grown tired of fighting directly against strong headwinds for so long: “You can only imagine that warm fast flowing body of water meeting a westerly gale at the continental shelf and the results that it can create. It would create a huge wind against current scenario … At last maybe my luck is turning.” |
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 01 April 2006 ) |
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