Ocean rowing is very much what you make it. Rowing technique is pretty irrelevant on the ocean. It's the psychology that's important.

I'm not claiming to be anything out of the ordinary. I am not especially big or strong or brave or intrepid.

It's amazing how resourceful you can become when you're in the middle of the ocean and there's only one way to get to the other side.

I have learned to accept that, in the present moment at least, things are exactly as they are meant to be, and although I cannot control the future any more than I could control the wind and the weather, I can manage it and influence it in a positive way.

Compared with the awesome might and eternal power of the ocean, no human being can fail to be reminded of their own insignificance.

Fall down nine times, get up ten.

So let's raise the tone of the debate. Too often at the moment we look like schoolchildren squabbling over a toy - our most precious toy, the Earth. And the danger is that as we pull in opposite directions in our global tug of war, the Earth will end up broken - or at least unable to sustain human life. That is the worst case scenario - or maybe, from the Earth's point of view, the best.