Dee Caffari's blog

Another fabulous Cowes week comes to an end and many smiling guests of Aviva have had an enjoyable experience. They have sailed onboard the Open 60 and seen a little of what Cowes Week is all about. The sun came out on occasion and the wind was plenty to sail with.

Tuesday saw winds peaking at 23 knots for the Artemis Challenge. Eight boats took to the start line for some really close racing and a true spectacle of how exciting the Open 60 are fully powered up. Ecover 3 and Aviva challenged for the start line and we all sailed hard and fast through the showers towards the Needles.

A damp, windy and bleak day greeted me early on Wednesday morning as I arrived at Howth Yacht Club in Dublin, Ireland. A worried looking group of Brokers and clients for Aviva had gathered around a salty sea dog in the form of Liam Lalore. He was to be our skipper for the day onboard Arctic Fox, a Bavaria 38. Fred McCollum had prepared breakfast and instructed his crew to look after us. The forecast was not great and the gusts in excess of thirty knots were whistling through the marina.

After some interesting sailing and an eventful race last weekend we have had a busy week.

Back out on the water for a couple of days sailing and getting some more accurate calibrations for our wind instruments allowed us to enjoy an almost empty Solent in comparison to the weekend. The guys

It was an interesting race for Aviva and her crew today. We started really well in threatening skies and blustery winds. With fifteen to twenty knots of wind from the southwest we tacked away from the island side towards the west. At times we had to duck under other boats and the gap between us made us draw breath but fortunately we were clear of everyone, I am relieved to say.

The largest sailing event in the UK is set to take place in just a few hours time, the JP Morgan Asset Management Round The Island Race.