Last night Dee Caffari and her crew – on board Aviva – surged back ahead of the record for circumnavigating Britain and Ireland. Read previous story here .

Strong south westerly 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, 18 June) the all-female crew passed Muckle Flugga, a small island just north of the Shetland Isles, and started to head back south. They were approximately 3 to 4 hours ahead of the time required to beat the outright record.

Whilst 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.”