Date 10 May 2005
Location 500 miles from Ascension Island
Weather warm and overcast
Heading gybing north west
I have heard many rumours about how difficult this leg of the Global Challenge Race is. Only now I am some number of days into the leg am I seeing some of the elements arise that I heard others tell me about in recent and distant conversations.
As we identified we not only complete the circumnavigation during this leg but we then continue to sail away from home to add an excess of miles to the race. We have already completed the tour of the world by crossing all the time zones so already we are revisiting where we have been already. We have also completed our circumnavigation by longitude as well. We are back in familiar waters again having already sailed in the South and the North Atlantic. That leaves just one more circumnavigation to finish and that is crossing our outward-bound track.
There is then that timetable issue. We are already, as skippers responsible for the crew and as employees of Challenge Business, trying to sort and organise the logistics of arrivals into La Rochelle and Portsmouth before returning the yachts to Southampton, their real home.
This is a subject that triggers off everyone discussing their plans for when they return. Are people going back to work, are they returning to the same job, or have people's ideas changed now they have been sailing for almost a year? This then eventually gets around to me. All my crew are intrigued as to where I see my future plans lie. Forcing me to talk to them about ideas I have, is forcing me to really think about what I do want to do. The surprising fact for most is that I do want to continue sailing. I am still really enjoying this race. The focus of it has changed dramatically to when I was quite naive in Portsmouth before the departure, and I really feel that not only have I developed in my role as a skipper but also as someone responsible for this team of people that came together 17 months ago that are now fully capable of sailing this yacht in all conditions.
It is really satisfying when you sit back and watch the healthy interaction of the team and also the set manoeuvres performed without discussion. Also the tasks that I stressed from the beginning, that were met with various looks, not all becoming that's for sure, but it is now, these tasks that are second nature to the crew and are being done without discussion and debate. For example, every week of this entire race we have had safety Sunday. This has been without fail and I am very pleased that this, as one of the most valued aspects of the race, safety, has become such second nature to my crew.
As for my aspirations for the future, I would definitely like to do more sailing. I would like ideally to sail the other way around the world, the right way. That would then allow me to be the only female to have sailed both ways around the world. I am also keen to do some short-handed sailing.
I am aiming to sail performance yachts at a higher level, to stretch myself and develop further as a sailor. The test being that short-handed sailing would allow me to see if I liked the idea of single-handed sailing. Anything is a possibility given the opportunity, and I would definitely try something before knocking it. After all, a few years back when I was a teacher, I would never have imagined I would be sailing around the world today.
Dee Caffari/Yachting World, 10 May 2005
