“I’m sitting outside in the evening enjoying the sunset with a cup of tea. It’s another spectacular one today! They’re particularly beautiful on the ocean when there’s also some light cloud cover present, like there is this evening. It’s taking its time tonight as well; the clouds were tinged with red, orange, yellow and gold long before the sun began to disappear below the horizon.”

“The wind shifted more towards the south-east yesterday evening, a bit of cloud cover arrived and it rained a little in the night. The waves went crazy so I’d shut myself inside my damp steamy little cage. Nope, I didn’t sleep well at all on those two sleeping bags that hadn’t really dried out properly. The sun was shining again in the morning, but the sea remained quite turbulent. Still not the right weather to be cooking in! After a breakfast of Mountain Bread™ and tinned fish I hit the oars once again.

Throwing the Zeeman Challenger broadside on the waves with the bow to the south and the rudder locked into the direction of the waves, I was able to row a westerly course, even managing to sink a little to the south, to keep to the safest route through the islands of Vanuatu. It wasn’t much fun rowing across the waves with the prevailing wind and four-metre-high waves. A wave broke over me every few minutes so I was constantly soaked, though luckily the sun was shining which in fact made the wet rowing quite pleasant.

In the afternoon the wind died down to force 4, which made a world of difference. You can row in a calm and controlled manner up to force 4; force 5 makes things more turbulent with taller waves, it’s more difficult to hold your choice and a lot of water splashes across the deck. At the end of the afternoon the wind became stronger again and began to lean more towards the north. Pity!

I emptied the largest compartment under the deck, which had a lot of seawater in. Dripped chlorine into the jerrycans of water from Fiji to make it last longer, and unfortunately came across one of them that was leaky. Bang goes 10 litres! I’ve got another 95 litres left on board now, so water-maker, you’ll have to hold out a bit longer. I’m going to need you for a while yet!”

“I’ll be continuing on my way towards the islands tomorrow, and I should really be able to see them by then too. I suspect there will be tidal currents between the islands that may cause me problems. I’m seeing debris coming from that way floating past me increasing regularity. Late tomorrow evening the wind will freshen to force 6-odd with accompanying waves, and in circumstances like that I’ll have to stay well clear of the islands – that’s not a situation I want to end up shipwrecked in. The boat overturned five times by Atafu before I was able to abandon ship and swim to a coral beach. Here the waves will be twice as high and four times as powerful, and they won’t lead to nice little beaches either, instead crashing down with deafening force on steep, solid rock faces with lava running down them. My boat would be smashed to pieces inside a minute, and me as well most likely. That’s something I definitely wouldn’t survive!”