Simon Chalk: Determined to row on

The 30-year-old adventurer, from Newton Abbot in Devon, is rowing across the ocean from Australia to Reunion Island.

He has suffered storms, capsizes, a broken oar and sunburn, and progress has been painfully slow at times, forcing him to ration his food.

Now, after a month at sea and 600 miles into his 3,700 mile odyssey, he has found found a leak in the customised boat, the 23 ft (7.3m) True Spirit.

Click here to see map of journey

His father, Roger, said the leak and the other problems meant it would take his son about 80 days to finish.

He said: "Obviously, he's bitterly disappointed and we have had to have a couple of days talking to him seriously and changing his mindset.

"He felt that he had let people down, but he's not let anybody down.

"He's been unfortunate with the weather and the boat is standing up remarkably well."

Simon Chalk writes in his diary for BBC Devon Online: "All hell's broken out!

It's carnage to be honest! Simon Chalk Click here to read all his diaries

"First the electronic steering failed.

"I went to the cabin to get the spare steering wheel which is under the cabin floor, and I found a leak.

"It probably happened in the first or second week, but because it's beneath the cushion line in the cabin there was no way of knowing it was there and my spares, which were all under the floor, are ruined."

His emergency glass fibre kit and satellite phone battery are among the items ruined by the salt water.

Youngest person

Mr Chalk cannot even fix the hole, because the silicone filler will not work in the salt water.

"I got everything out on deck to dry it out but I've been hit by two or three full-blown storms," he writes.

"I had thunder and lighting for two nights and I also got rolled and smashed an oar. It's carnage to be honest!"

Mr Chalk is still hoping to become the first Briton to row the ocean, and the youngest person to do so.

The only time the Indian Ocean route has been completed was in 1971 by Swede Anders Svedlund.

His last attempt on the Indian Ocean last May ended with Chalk and his partner clinging to their capsized boat for 15 hours in shark-infested waters before rescue.