ukewarm pepperoni pizza, diet coke and champagne may not sound like the greatest culinary combination, but after 178 days on a 72ft boat eating freeze-dried, boil in the bag and ?simply-add-water? meals, Dee Caffari could not have enjoyed it any more than she did.

Her meal of choice was her first treat after becoming the first ever woman to travel solo around the world west-about, or to put it more candidly, the wrong way.

To complete the 29,297 mile journey was a triumph of the spirit, of the body, of logistics, of self-will, of ingenuity under pressure and victory of machine over nature ? icebergs, tropical storms et al.

The most obvious question to ask the 31-year-old Brit, who had completed similar length journeys with a full crew aboard the same boat, was why?

Why would you choose to not only go around the world the wrong way, but to go around the world the wrong way on your own?

?That?s a question I had plenty of time to ask myself on the boat,? said Caffari, relaxing ? over diet coke once more ? in the lobby of one of Rhode Island?s top hotels just two days before setting off on a much shorter and more sociable journey, the 635-mile thrash from Newport to Bermuda.

?I was approached a few months before while competing in the Global Challenge and asked if I was interested in doing it.

?Only three men have done it ? all solo ? and no women had. I think in a way, the main appeal was that it was one of the last firsts left.

?People have done all sorts of different journeys in all sorts of different directions and this was one of the few firsts left for a woman.

?I had plenty of time to think about, and when we were completing the final legs of the Global Challenge, I looked around the boat and thought about what changes would need to be made, whether or not I could really do this.

?When I got back home, I worked out what needed to be done, I went out and got the sponsorship ? in only six weeks, that?s not bad is it? ? and then we were ready to go by November.

?And so I went.?

What made her decision to attempt the journey even more poignant was that the invitation was made by the legendary Sir Chay Blythe, at the time she was completing the Global Challenge with her crew ? an event that was itself inspired by Blythe.

Blythe himself had been the first of three men to complete this route solo ? taking 292 days in the days when it was safer to stop rather than push on through bad weather ? and felt Caffari had the ?inner spirit necessary? to complete the gruelling voyage.

With such a ringing endorsement from a genuine legend of the sport, what choice did she have.

Caffari?s adventure may have started as simply a brave woman against mighty ocean but it wasn?t long before her support network grew from beyond just the logistics team and sponsors behind her.

Thanks to a slick marketing machine, Caffari?s trip not only made it into lots of mainstream media, it made it into plenty of schools.

The combination of her route and daily logs meant a heavy interest from schools as well as simply well-wishers who had logged on to her website to hear her stories.

?I think I pretty much covered the whole curriculum,? continued Caffari.

?There were kids doing geography following my route and then there were the kids doing English who were looking at my daily diary ? it was nice to know that so many people were interested in what I was doing and that maybe I was helping all those schoolchildren.

?What was also amazing, and really meant a lot to me, were some of the messages I got from people I didn?t know.

?There were terminally ill people who got in contact and said things about how they were inspired by what I was doing.

?It was very humbling to hear people with real problems in their lives saying that they thought things were bad until they heard what I was doing.

?It means a lot to know that something you are doing is touching so many other people.?

s well as contact from strangers, there were also the daily messages from her sailing boyfriend and family.

?I couldn?t have managed without my e-mail. That was my lifeline, I was checking it all the time and if I didn?t have messages, I would get pretty upset.

?When you have no human contact you have unnatural reliance on e-mail, although the phone was also pretty important to me.?

A satellite phone on the vessel would allow her limited calls, with media interviews and calls to her support team making up the majority of her contact with the outside world.

?The phone was obviously giving me a chance to hear people, but you don?t realise how much you miss human contact ? seeing people?s eyes, their hand gestures, the non-verbal communication.

?It was tough at times but it has really made me appreciate my friends and family now.

?Since I have got back, I have been really making the most of quality time with people ? it?s one of those things that you don?t realise how precious it is until you don?t have it.?

At one stage of her journey, crew on a space station in distress would have been closer to help than Dee Caffari.

It?s that sort of scary statistic that brought home to the solo sailor just how vulnerable she was out there in her 72ft vessel in the middle of the ocean thousands of miles from land.

Fortunately her resourcefulness was such that there were no genuine emergencies, although she had to constantly rewire the vessel to bypass shorted circuits ? ?I didn?t know that much about electronics before I left, but I certainly do now? ? and even had to take apart her oven to get her desalination equipment working.

?There was a point in the journey where I saw some whales and although they posed no danger to me, it did dawn on me that if, say, they rammed the boat I really would in serious trouble,? she continued.

?I was so far out, so alone. You have a 72ft world and you don?t really look beyond that. But if I fell ill, something happened, there were plenty of points in the journey where there is nothing people could have done for me.?

And it wasn?t just the vulnerability of the voyage that presented Caffari with mental challenges, it was also the sheer loneliness of it all.

A collection of 12 DVDs ? including Lord of the Rings, What Women Want, Blue Crush and the Transporter ? and a handful of books, including motivational ones, were her crutch during the hard times.

?Even though I couldn?t watch more than maybe five, ten minutes at a time of the films, they were so important to me,? continued Caffari.

?For those brief periods of time I just disappeared from my boat and into my own world. I needed those breaks from reality, however brief, just to keep me going.?

As well as relying on films and books, there was the constant background noise provided by a heavily-used iPod.

The tracks themselves were chosen by others but all had a common theme . . .

?Nearly all the music was uplifting in some way,? she laughed.

?I must admit I found myself singing along quite a bit ? when there is no one around to complain you can do what you like.?

Despite all the hardships a solo sailor faces, there was only one moment in the whole trip where she felt she wanted to call it quits.

?There were plenty of moments of introspection where I would have loved to just get off for a few hours, relax, have a sleep, maybe go for a meal and then get back on, but I never really wanted to actually stop,? she continued, in a slightly more serious tone.

?But there was one occasion where I just really didn?t think I could go on. I was in the Southern Ocean and I had had no more than nine hours sleep in nine days and I was at a really low ebb. There were just icebergs everywhere and even with all the radar and everything, I just couldn?t relax. I was constantly looking out and on guard and it was hard.

?I remember being on the phone in tears saying that I had just had enough ? I was really struggling.

?But then I did snatch some sleep and when I awoke, the icebergs were visible just on the sides of the boat and there was a clear path for the first time and then there was the most incredible sunset. Every colour of the rainbow, it was just amazing, I find it hard to describe in words but it was something very special.

?I suppose in a way that was my epiphany. I said to myself ?I?ve cracked it? and I had no more problems coping after that.?

ore than a month after returning to real life, you won?t find Caffari sleeping for more than three of fours at a time.

Although she thinks she did manage five hours one night, she still can?t get back to her normal sleep pattern after the best part of six months spent with an average of four hours in 24 and certainly no more than 75 minutes at any time.

Now she is back, she will sleep in fits and starts, her concept of day and night still clearly not returned to her body.

?I guess your body does what it needs to cope and I just don?t need all this sleep,? she said.

?Sleeping eight hours is a luxury, I don?t think our bodies need to do it, but it is comfortable and that is how we have always done things, so we just do it.

?My body still obviously doesn?t work that way and I just can?t get back to normal.?

Her failure to return to normal also includes no longer just spending evenings watching TV ? ?when you don?t have it, you certainly don?t miss it but you do realise how important quality time is and how important interacting with others is? ? and being famous, ?I got stopped at a supermarket checkout in my civvies just days after getting back, then I knew what I had done mattered to other people?.

Not really an emotional person, Caffari admits she did shed some tears upon her return ? but only when she realised just how many people cared about what she was doing.

Thousands lined the dock in Southampton for her emotional return, banners were held aloft, cannons fired, champagne was sprayed and Princess Anne ? who had greeted Blythe on his return ? was there to congratulate her.

?I was truly humbled by the reception I got,? added Caffari, as her crewmates arrived to whisk her away to talk Gulf Stream eddies ahead of their 635-mile crossing to the Island.

?To see all those people was amazing, amazing. It made me realise the enormity of what I had done and it is something I will never forget.?

There are still some challenges left for Caffari, the first of those being guiding home crewmates in the centennial Newport-Bermuda Race.

?I just hope I don?t talk too much!,? she gushed.

?I?m not used to having other people around, I was sort of getting used to talking to myself and I will have to re-adjust to other humans being on a boat with me.

?The other problem is that I am the Naviguesser, sorry Navigator, so if I get it wrong, there are going to be people to complain.?

Although Caffari is certainly on a shorter voyage than her last one, the record light winds that have accompanied the record fleet has meant that the journey has not been as short as she hoped.

At press time last night, her Volvo Ocean 60 was not expected in until this morning?s early hours.