Nathan would have been more impressed if his teacher, Mick Moran, was swimming and not rowing across the Indian Ocean from Western Australia to Mauritius. As it stood, Nathan, a nine-year old in Moran's learning support centre class, could already point to Moran's start and finish on the classroom globe. But then Nathan challenged his teacher, who next April will attempt to row 3,100 nautical miles over some 100 days, to swim back to China.
Moran, 44, gently reminded his pupil that he was rowing, not swimming. And then, not entirely inaccurately, Nathan began to sing: Row, row, row your boat. Except, there is nothing gentle about it and the ocean is no stream.
In 1971, Anders Svedlund of Sweden became the first person to row across the Indian Ocean. Since then, only two others have successfully completed the journey, including Simon Chalk, who is now organising the inaugural Indian Ocean Race in April 2009. Moran, who moved to Hong Kong 18 months ago from Britain, hopes to be among those who complete the journey.
'There are very few things that you can do where you're the first one to actually take part in,' Moran said. 'So, why not? The Atlantic's been done a few times and it's still an amazing challenge to do that, but the Indian Ocean has just got a different attraction.'
When Moran sailed around the world from 2004-05, he met, and spent a week sailing with, Chalk, who suggested that he try rowing. Moran, who had not rowed before, decided to give it a try and spent a year rowing with an off-shore rowing club in the UK. He was slated to complete the race with a friend, before the friend pulled out and Moran decided to go at it alone.
Moran, a special needs teacher at Bradbury School, bought his boat and after a delay, it finally arrived in Hong Kong, where Moran is fitting it with electronic and communications equipment. He is doing the physical training for the race, but also the mental training, as there will be little human interaction in what he estimates to be a 31/2-month race.