RE SATELLITE PHONE - I've managed to find a wire that has an intermittent fault in it. If I "jiggle" it a certain way (the wire that is) and hold my tongue correctly, I can get it to fire up (still talking about the phone) so as at 9.00am AEDST today, we will give it another go. We are operating in a harsh environment for electronics (and every other bloody thing!) so problems like this are bound to occur. We all have to roll with the punches. I will do the best I can to maintain communications and keep you all informed.

It is worthy of note here, and it should be read in all seriousness, that there is a possibility that at some stage I may lose COMPLETE communications and not get them back. That situation SHOULD NOT BE CAUSE FOR IMMEDIATE ALARM. I have safety equipment on board like EPIRB's to fire up if I'm in trouble. If all communications do happen to go down at any point, I will continue to sail the boat toward our objective and try to let the outside world know that I'm okay through some means, like contact with another boat, etc. I will not stop just because I can't communicate. A bloke called James Cook didn't have e-mail!

Have a good day,

Tony Mowbray