Ahead of the game

As Aviva passes Muckle Flugga this morning on their Round Britain record attempt

Last night Dee Caffari and her crew onboard Aviva surged back ahead of the record for circumnavigating Britain and Ireland. Strong southwesterly winds have allowed the team to put their foot down to get ahead of schedule as they turned the corner at the most northerly point on the record route. This morning at 0920hrs (BST) the all-female crew passed Muckle Flugga, a small island just north of the Shetland Isles and started to head back south.

While the crew are happy to be ahead of schedule they know that with ever-changing weather they need to make the most of any favourable winds to stay on course for the record.

Dee Caffari commented last night: “Back ahead of the record schedule so we are four wet, tired and happy girls onboard Aviva today. The weather has been blowing strong in a good direction so we have been trying to make the best of it all and get some good mileage in the bank early. The forecast for tomorrow is going to make progress for us difficult so you may see times slip but the outlook to get these back on the way to Ireland is promising.

“Eating and sleeping is being fitted into a physically demanding existence, but we have not missed a beat. The rain of the day has given way to a most beautiful sunset tonight although we know showers will be on the cards later. The best part of being way up north is that there is no night time, in fact it did not even get dark last night. It is really incredible.”

At 0920hrs (BST) this morning, Caffari and crew passed the northern most point of the course and were approximately 3 to 4 hours ahead of the time required to beat the outright record.

Miranda Merron reports: We rounded the northernmost rock of the course, Out Stack, then Muckle Flugga at about 0915 this morning, following a fantastic 24 hours of sailing. The islands are spectacular in the sunshine. Yesterday was fast and wet downwind, as expected. While flying along in the pouring rain, pre-cold front, we had a surprise visit from a Nimrod. The cold front came through late afternoon, with a top wind speed of 42 knots, and the speed record on this trip so far goes to Sam at 25.4 knots. Sometime during all this, the leeward lazyjack parted company from the mast, so Alex went up the mast to reattach it, whil Dee tried to avoid taking off down surfing waves (not much coice in the matter - the bopat just goes!). After that we had 200 miles of superb reaching conditions once the sea state had calmed down, regularly going over 20 knots of boat speed, mighty wet at times (ski goggles a plus), and it never got dark during the night. Quite chilly, but truly fabulous sailing.

We have started on a day of slamming upwind into the Atlantic. Despite this, the crew are on excellent form, though Alex did ask how many hours until we can next go fast. We have sunshine and occasional showers/ hail. Sam kindly obliged with the obligatory bikini shot at Muckle Flugga. It really isn't that warm - full foulies and thermal unerwear and hats are the preferred option.