From Dee Caffari (Aviva) in her daily message from the Vendee Globe aboard Aviva

“I passed south of Auckland Islands last night and had a pretty bumpy ride during the night time hours. When dawn broke I had a call asking for my position out here in the middle of nowhere in the Southern Ocean. Three hours later a call came again with a familiar voice and asked for my position again. Ten minutes later a plane was overhead and Dave Greenberg with three buddies were flying around Aviva and saying hi.

It was awesome to hear a familiar voice and see people in the plane even if I could not see faces. It was quite murky still and the wind was gusty but I sat on deck grinning like a Cheshire cat. In 2004/5 on the Global Challenge, Dave was the winchman involved in the rescue of a sick crew member on New Year’s day. Then again in 2005/6 on the Aviva Challenge, Dave flew out off the South Island of New Zealand and collected some video tapes from me on Valentine’s Day.

Now here we are again in his neck of the woods and he came and took some photos of me and Aviva. It was very cool and it seems that I am not destined to pass New Zealand without a visit from either a plane or a helicopter. Still it made Aviva happy as she is after all a kiwi!”