We're moving the goal post, ever so slightly.  One of the most crucial assessments after last weekend's row was whether we are on schedule for departure from Sydney later this month.

Rob Hamill and I spent a long time reviewing all facets of our overnight row - the jobs left to be ticked off and the availability of the team to complete testing - and we need just a little bit more time. Not much time - only 10 - 12 days but enough time working together in Auckland to ensure that we meet our original objective of being able to pull our boat, Moana, from the shipping container in a completely ready-to-row state and leave Sydney as prepared as we can possibly be.

In order to achieve this we have agreed on an extended preparation period for the whole team in Auckland from Sunday 22 October with the aim of shipping the boat to Australia by Monday 31 October.

The team will travel to Sydney together by Thursday 3 November to greet Moana on her arrival. Once we have cleared customs, quarantine, completed a final post-shipping equipment test, we'll be on standby to leave by Monday 7 November 2011 - one month from today.

Our standby period could last anywhere from 1 to 14 days as we wait for the green light from our weather expert, Dr Roger Badham, but we're hopeful it will be closer to the lower end of the waiting period as by then we’ll be eager to get underway.

So, we're very close to rowing the Tasman in around one month's time and there's extra motivation to row hard to be home for Christmas. We can’t wait.

The final countdown is on: 31 days to go.

- Nigel Cherrie