Ralph has been working very hard the last few days to get through the dangerous passage between the Indispensable Reefs and Rennel Island. The messages we have received from him he made it very clear that he was anxious and would be very pleased once it was over. Luckily we got another message from him today saying he was past the most dangerous bit. Below you can read the report he left us today.

“23rd June 2008 – I’ve made it, I’ve rowed myself to safety. After a few harrowing days of rowing 16 hours without a break to get out of that bothersome current, I’VE DONE IT! I was 10 miles away from the southern point of Rennel Island yesterday evening, and this afternoon I was about 15 miles above the northern point of the Indispensable Reefs. I’m very relieved to be able to put this behind me and give my full attention to the journey towards Papua New Guinea. There’s another few reefs in 100 miles’ time, but they’re not very dangerous on this route. The distance from Peru to Brisbane would’ve been 7,050 miles, and I’ve now rowed 7,100 miles so far, so that’s already more than the original was going to be.

I found some more food today, including my favourite dish, pasta bolognaise. Sadly it smelt a bit funny and was slightly off-colour so I didn’t eat it. I’m going to store it somewhere though, as my food reserves will last for a little over five weeks. With a bit of rationing that should be enough to get me through the rest of the journey. Rummaging around between the desserts I also found my favourite kind: hazelnut yoghurt. This unfortunately turned out to be inedible as well. Yoghurt should be white, but this stuff looked yellow and bore a strong resemblance to vomit. I ate it anyway, and it tasted of something that at the very least was probably once a yoghurt.

The picture below shows Ralph's position on 23rd June, right between the reef and the island.

There are a lot of tunas leaping around the boat, as well as a few very strange fish. They’ll be coming from the reef of course, which has the greatest diversity of sea life in the world. I feel I should apologise to tunas everywhere, by the way, as I wrote some time ago that dorados moved and leapt more gracefully than tunas, but after today I think I’ll have to retract that statement. The 2nd slipper floated past the boat today – I found the 1st one a week ago – so I fished it on board. I won’t be able to use it though, as the straps were completely worn. Oh well, I’ve got 800 miles left to find a new one and then I’ll be able to take my first steps back on land with shoes on both feet.”

The photo below is of the booby bird that kept Ralph company for a few days and was even cheeky enough to peck him on his head. One of the few photos Ralph was able to send through.