For obvious reasons spearguns and inflatable rafts do not make the best travelling companions and it was only a matter

For obvious reasons, spearguns and inflatable rafts do not make the best travelling companions, and it was only a matter of time before he had speared a fish which swam under and into the raft Oops. The dark outline of the raft was perfect for attracting them. And the next step was to say, `I can get out of here'."Then the sharks began to take an interest. "Those parts of the fish that were most disgusting to me, those were the parts that became the most delicious," he said.

"There was nothing that tasted better to me than fresh fish eyes - they were like nuggets of fresh fluids. Your body seems to know what it needs."Psychologically, things improved after a fortnight. "I began looking at myself as an aquatic caveman - I could live indefinitely out here. It took him two weeks to break his duck, though - a fortnight during which he must have wondered if he would ever eat again "When I caught the first fish I just broke down and wept... it was a signal that I'd been reduced to the lowest level of my existence." Later that day he caught another, a dorado - the sort of fish, as he said, "you'd pay good money to eat in restaurants."Once you have caught your fish, there is only one way to ensure you extract the maximum amount of nourishment: eat all of it Every bit. "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink." When you can only have a sip every few hours, he explained, water comes to dominate your existence - your time is measured out between those tiny gulps.Still, he had some water, and he had his speargun.

Had he known what he was in for, Callahan would have settled for that "Forget it," he told himself. "You're not going to get out of this." He was two to three months away from the West Indies "It was the old Ancient Mariner thing," he said. A bit of food, eight pints of water, a fishing kit, some flares, some pencils and a knife was pretty much the measure of it, apart from three other items that saved his life.One was a solar still to convert seawater into freshwater; another was a speargun; the third was the Manual to Sea Survival, written by Dougal Robertson, who spent 38 days adrift with his family in 1972 Thirty-eight days. "The water came thundering in like a river," he said.Instead of abandoning ship straight away, he dived back down to retrieve some equipment, what is called a "ditch kit" Once in his life raft, he gathered together the gear he had. He told his friends and family he thought he would be about a month So there he was, happily headed for the West Indies Next thing he knew, something hit him, "T-boning" his boat He thinks it was a whale. Well, yes indeed.A few years ago he was competing in a transatlantic race when his boat sustained some damage.