Let’s hope that Tony Bullimore isn’t in trouble, but while he remains out of his contact his shore supporters are disquietingly gleeful about the publicity storm.

‘Speculation on the crew’s whereabouts since they lost contact with the outside world on November 7 shortly after crossing the Equator bound for Hobart, Tasmania, led to more than 2 hours of television time on the major networks across Australia, Europe and the Middle East yesterday, news and phone-in discussions on more than 100 radio stations around the world, and stories in all the major newspapers,’ crows his team website.

‘Team Bullimore’s own Mistral web site www.teambullimore.com was hit by more than 64,500 hits within 24 hours. The site normally receives around 5,000 hits a day.’

Er? congrats all round on the coup!