But as soon as I put my gaze on the water, I realised the day was far from perfect

At the end of a day like today, there is no more rewarding feeling than sore hands. I know, those of you who have never had this feeling will not even know what I am talking about – and you wouldn’t buy the idea that pain can be good!

However, I row my boat with my hands and if, at the end of my day, I have sore hands this means ONE thing. No matter how far I have travelled I gave it all. I doubt there is another way to measure the effort.

Anyway, today, has been a great day even though I was very tired due to the fact that yesterday I didn’t get much sleep.

I really wanted to get hold of the sailing boat which is passing by me, so very ten minutes – from 10pm until 2am – I tried to contact them via radio.

According to my support team, the closest the boat came was around 20 miles – too far for my VHF radio. As I was saying today, it has been a great day. I was in a good mood, the boat felt light and fast on the water and the light breeze gently pushed me onward.

But as soon as I put my gaze on the water, I realised the day was far from perfect.

Hundreds of thousands of micro-plastic fragments were spread on the surface of the ocean.

This had such an impact on me that at lunchtime I got my net and collected a fair amount of the plastic.

We are around 50 nm from one of the three most polluted plastic patches and this is clearly the start of it.

Tonight, after eating another freeze-dried porcini risotto, I got so inspired by the feeling of being surrounded by infinite space that I sat back on my rowing seat and decided to give it another go.

No, just kidding, It was just a case of taking this picture before I headed back inside my cabin.

That is all for now, speak tomorrow.

Alex