Rower Shaun Quincey, five days at sea and 400km off the east coast of Australia in his attempt to make the first solo crossing of the Tasman to New Zealand, is finding the going tough.
His shore-based supporters said tonight the 24-year-old Aucklander's body was already starting to deteriorate.
He had been unable to wash and so was suffering from salt rash.
"For the past 40 hours Quincey has been confined to his cabin weathering steep swells, winds over 40 knots and drifting in whatever direction the Tasman decides to take him," spokesman Michael Buck said.
But fatigue was not an issue yet.
Quincey's boat is named Tasman Trespasser II after the craft his father rowed from New Zealand to Australia in 1977.
That voyage was the first and so far only successful solo east-west crossing by a rowing boat.
The young Quincey was quoted as saying tonight his boat was performing "remarkably well" considering the weather he was encountering.
