Dee Caffari in survival mode
Solo sailor Dee Caffari is reported to be in “survival mode” on her non-stop solo bid to sail round the world ‘the wrong way’ against prevailing winds and currents.
Project Director Andrew Roberts said that of the 50 crossings of the Southern Ocean by Challenge yachts, Dee is experiencing the worst for weather conditions.
Sailing one of Chay Blyth‘s 72ft steel Challenge yachts, Dee is having to take evasive manoeuvres again today – hiking north to avoid the path of a deep, fast-moving active low with 75 knots at its centre.
Even on her present northerly course she is seeing 50-55 knots, but
weather router Mike Broughton says there has been little opportunity for tactical positioning as she, “tries to make a chicane through the storms.”
“As she veers away from this vigorous system we’ve taken avoiding action to the north,” continued Mike, “but we don’t want to go too far north because we’ve also got a fast-moving tropical storm moving south towards her with possibility of 70 knots plus on that.
“We’ll head south later today to pass on the south side of the tropical storm or even sail through its centre. We’ve been looking at the formation of this storm for several days but we’ve not had much chance to sidestep it due to the fast-moving secondary low at the weekend and now this deep southern ocean low.”