Yesterday, I came up with an ambitious plan: row without sleep until 17°N. Like most of my intentions, it hasn’t been carried out perfectly. However, rather than being scrapped, I like to consider it “amended”!

My body has really had enough now. Every stroke feels laboured and sadly my 4-day sprint finish is unlikely to be quite as sensational as I would have liked. I did suggest I’d “row my arse off”. Right now, it feels like I quite literally have.

Anyway, my plan started well, and I passed the milestone of 16.5°N. Upon reaching this point, I made an executive decision - I am the captain, after all - I would reward myself with a nap! Surprisingly, this time it really was a nap, and two hours later I was back rowing, even getting to cross 16.5°N again, having been blown slightly south. I didn’t get another nap though!

Everything carried on well, and I got even further north. Then I took a break and, completely unintentionally, found myself asleep. This time it was about five hours before I graced the oars again. But, not to worry, I’d only lost a couple of miles and even got to, for the third time, reach 16.5°N! Only it wasn’t quite as simple as that.

For the first half of today, it was a real struggle. I could barely hold my position, let alone make any ground. I was not happy. But then, as though the weather gods had finally had enough of my girlie whining, the weather has come round to the point where, as I write this, I am drifting not only west, but north as well! I haven’t made much progress north today, but I’m not overly concerned; the forecast says (oh dear!) I should have three days of perfect weather. I intend to hit 17°N in 48 hours at the latest, leaving a day to really take advantage of the weather. How long until Antigua? We’ll just have to wait and see.

After yesterday’s cutlery incident, I quickly got fed-up with my scoop. So I dived in search of my surgical patient. Sadly, as expected, he hadn’t survived the trauma, and I could only find the spoon end anyway. But, where traditional methods fail, you create new ones. So, today saw the introduced of bionic-spoon. And it has performed admirably!

Not long to go now. Too long, given I really wanted to be sleeping in a stable bed tonight, but still not long. I lost another radio today. For the final run in, my musical fate is in Duck’s hands. Can he handle the pressure?!