The British yachtswoman Dee Caffari has become the first woman to have sailed solo and non-stop both ways around the world after finishing the Vendée Globe race. The former PE teacher from Hertfordshire, on board her yacht Aviva, crossed the line off Les Sables d'Olonne in western France in sixth place, but with a heavily damaged mainsail, after 99 days at sea.
"I'm quite exhausted but I'll be buzzing for the next few days. My goal was to set the double world first, and Aviva and I have done it," she said. "The mainsail constantly caused me concern. You just have to look at it to see what a dreadful state it's in, but I managed to struggle on. I had an opportunity here to make history so a disintegrating mainsail wasn't going to get in my way."
The 36-year-old became the first woman to sail solo, non-stop the "wrong" way around the world in May 2006. That circumnavigation took 178 days.
On yesterday's finishing leg, she said: "There were people there waving and saying hello and then a random motor cruiser came up and shouted: 'Go Dee!' And I thought: 'Wow, I'm close to the finish now.' Then when everybody came out towards me ... the sight was brilliant. The sunset was beautiful and there was a lovely sunrise and I had dolphins, so I knew it was going to be a good day."
Caffari was happy to finish sixth. "If you'd said that in the beginning, I'd have laughed in your face," she said. "I had an awesome start, then I made a few mistakes tactically and the intensity of the race in the South Atlantic was just phenomenal. I sort of said: 'I'm not sure if I can do this.' I was OK in the south, then I lost a bit of confidence in my first storm. Everybody was having problems and that was when all the damage was happening.
"But after Cape Horn, I had an awesome Atlantic – I suddenly turned the corner and I'd grown into my boat. I did the repair on the main to keep it going a little bit longer. We just decided as a team to go for it and if it fell apart we'd deal with that later."
On setting a new record as the first woman to sail round the world in both directions, she added: "That is so cool, isn't it? I am so very excited, and I am really pleased, and pleased to do the job for Aviva. They have been great and to come in today in shiny yellow is very good.
"I only started sailing in an Open 60 18 months ago. In my first solo race I hated it and cried all the way, and got dismasted right before the end. I thought, 'Oh my God! What have I let myself in for?' But I loved this and have grown into the boat all the time."
