Dee Caffari and her all female crew onboard Aviva have had a successful first night in their attempt to break the record for sailing around Britain and Ireland – almost 2500 nm. Having departed from Gosport at 18:00 on Monday evening, the crew crossed the official start line off Ventnor on the Isle of Wight at 21:09:36 and are sailing in an anti-clockwise direction.

Dee Caffari commented: “It’s been wicked. We are really on the pace and have worked hard overnight dodging shipping in the English Channel with lots of manoeuvres and sail changes already. We are about to enter an area of variable weather which will keep us pretty busy for the rest of today.”

The all female crew are hoping to making good progress today, despite a dying low pressure system, before picking up a new breeze that will set them on their way again and continue to increase as a cold front comes in.

Yesterday morning, Caffari and crew were passing Southend-on-Sea and were approximately 10 hours ahead of the pace required to beat the outright record.

Caffari is joined onboard her racing yacht Aviva by an all female crew, including fellow British yachtswoman and Vendée Globe race rival Samantha Davies, sailor Miranda Merron and boat captain Alex Sizer.

The current outright record stands at 7 days 4 hours and was set in May 2004 onboard Solune. The one set by an all female crew, stands at 10 days and 16 hours – recorded by Samantha Davies and her crew onboard Roxy in June 2007.