A tough night for Dee and Nigel

2:15pm Monday 5th November 2007

Position in Race (12.01 UTC): 12/17 Aviva's first night at sea proved to be tough and tiring for Dee Caffari and her co-skipper Nigel King. The constantly changing wind speed and direction made for numerous sail changes throughout the night and both Dee and Nigel were feeling anxious about their position in the race as daylight broke this morning.

Dee said in her diary, posted at 0100 UTC, "After a great start we have endured a difficult night. As darkness fell and the temperature dropped we had the whole fleet in our sights. Then the wind dropped and we parked up. The wind speed fluctuated between 2 knots and 7 knots and the direction kept changing from 340 degrees to 060 degrees. All these changes made deciding on the correct sail very difficult and many times we were at a cross between three sails.

"We are now floating past the Channel Islands and meeting an adverse tide. We can see some mast lights but fear they re not the opponents we are hoping to see. I am sure the sunrise surprise will reveal a disappointing night but we still have time in this race."

However, the sunrise has not brought with it the anticipated disappointment, as Aviva is currently lying in 12th position. Dee and Nigel have made a great recovery throughout the night and will be looking to maintain Aviva's position in the fleet of similar generation boats.