How do you act out a stainless steel M5 washer to someone that doesn’t speak the same language as you?

As was always going to be the case, things have turned up a notch. The long Lima days have been given the imperative of a deadline. We’ve been stripped of the luxury of’ I’ll do it tomorrow’ — in only two tomorrows we will wave farewell to life on land and bob over the horizon into the big blue.

Packing 5 months of food into a 30 foot rowing boat. Spearheading boat tasks to dos — the list seems to be getting longer faster than we’re ticking stuff off. Rushing around Peru’s equivalent to B&Q and manically gesturing that you’re looking for a washer that’s M5 in size and stainless steel to a very helpful (though slightly bemused) Peruvian woman.

We’ll get there — we always do. And then life will become a lot simpler as we point ourselves West.