KEY POINTS:
Two Australian paddlers who were able to rack up gains of as much as 80km a day with the help of currents off the Australian coast had a much tougher day yesterday.
At 11pm last night they were drifting to the north east, less than 600km from the New South Wales coast.
"Paddling today into a 15-20 knot east-northeast wind and adverse currents saw us a mere 11km closer to NZ after 6 hours of paddling," James Castrission, 25, said on the pair's website tonight.
Though the pair had clocked up some big daily mileages in their first week at sea by riding currents they were feeling weary.
"Tried paddling a few different bearings - futile," said Mr Castrission. "We decided to call it a day at 1330 and catch up on some sleep".
Satellite tracking of the transtasman kayak attempt tonight showed the kayak was pushed about 10km to the north-east, apparently paddled a similar distance to the east, towards the top of NZ, but since then it had been carried back to the northeast.
Mr Castrission said the pair were averaging about seven hours "decent sleep" each night.
Seas up to 5 metres high have at times lashed the custom-built kayak being used by Mr Castrission, and Justin Jones, 24, for the 2200km trip to New Zealand.
Race Recon executive director Patrick Brothers, who spoke to the pair on a satellite phone yesterday, said their bodies were "starting to deteriorate a little bit".
"The salt water is starting to eat into Justin's forearms, and James has got a rash on his shoulder," he said
They clean themselves daily with half a litre of fresh water made using a desalination machine on the kayak.
"The guys set a cracking pace early on, but in the next couple of weeks we'll watch how they cope as they really have to slog it out, and back up with 12-hour days," he said.
- NZPA