Whilst the leaders in the Transat Jacques Vabre race have now passed through the doldrums, Dee Caffari and Nigel King are still in the midst of the low pressure area in what will be a testing time for the co-skippers onboard Aviva. At 0003 hrs UHT, Dee reported: "Having been under attack from flying fish for the last couple of days we are now under threat of lightening. Neither of the two above are favourites of mine so my stress levels are quite high.

After some great spinnaker sailing today and watching the boat speeds of those ahead we made a decision to go for the doldrums. We applied a sharp left hand skid and are forging forwards tonight as due South as the wind will allow in hope that we can cross this transition zone as quickly as possible and reach the South Easterly Trades that are resident below the doldrums.

We are currently sailing close to a very active storm cell displaying lightening and sending gusts of wind down to us from all directions.

It will be a long few hours but the equator and Brazil beckon from the other side."

During her 2005 record-breaking voyage against prevailing winds and tides, Dee Caffari passed through and escaped the famed doldrums relatively unscathed twice and was given only a glimpse of the tortuous conditions that over the years have driven many lone sailors to despair and a few to insanity. This time round, in her Open 60 Aviva, the doldrums are set to pose as stern a test as any she and co-skipper Nigel King have faced previously.

According to Aviva Ocean Racing campaign manager Harry Spedding, they could be decisive, not just for Dee and Nigel but for all the skippers and routers.

"Planning routes across this difficult to predict area of little wind is what the team have been working on and was their long term aim," he said.

"So all decisions leading up to now, have had that in mind. As some of the fleet have rounded the Cape Verdes they have split to the east and west. The routers and skippers will be looking at infra red satellite images in order to track cloud activity and track a decent route through the windless zone. The usual route through is normally quite far west, but the boats' final destination is just below the bulge of Brazil, so if they go too far west they will overshoot their shortest distance to the finish line.

"For every boat in this race the doldrums can turn the race on its head. There are some very experienced sailors with literally hundreds of thousands of miles under their belt taking part in this year's TJV and all of them, including Dee will be have given the doldrums very serious consideration."