"When I overturned five times on the Atafu reef three months ago, emptying out most of the contents of my boat when the tide had gone out some time later, I came across a rather heavy package from my mother. I opened it and found a copper cross with Jesus on it inside. My first thought then was: bit late, aren't you? I put him back in the boat with all my other stuff and brought it to the village. The religious community there naturally thought it was beautiful, so by the time I left it had been given pride of place on the deck, just under the GPS display, which meant I was staring at Jesus for most of the day while I was rowing, and I haven't moved him again since then.

He's having a hard time of it, I can tell you: our little copper Jesus is now a sickly shade of green from top to toe, as if he's seasick. He's very brave, though: he hasn't moved a muscle since he's been hanging there. I've also got the Old and New Testaments in addition to my seasick Jesus. Unfortunately the little chain the cross was hanging on around my neck landed up in the ocean during the Atafu crash."

"Now I've also got a fan, by the name of Ben, e-mailing me about my search for God. He wrote that he'd found Jesus when he was in a situation that was almost identical to mine. He was backpacking in Indonesia when he developed an infection in his foot. Some time later he met Jesus and everything went well again. Well indeed, that's a damn good comparison. Something has to be done: I'm off to pray.

Dear God and Jesus, I've heard a lot of good things about you. I'm trying to get to Australia at the moment and was supposed to be able to row there at a good speed with the stable currents and favourable winds you've created, but in my current situation I'm quite often being sent north, south or even back east again. Could you please make sure the winds and currents come from the east and point towards Australia from tomorrow? And could you keep the hurricanes at bay this year too? I also heard you brought the Gospel to Atafu in 1852; my question is whether the Gospel can come to my boat as well. It doesn't have to be very complicated - I'll bring the iPod myself, I just need some earphones from you. Some kind of cooking device would also be good, but failing that it'd be nice if I could catch a fish at some point. Until tomorrow, then, and thanks in advance. Amen."