The peloton in the 1st Inaugural PT109 Swim - but the key characters are in front: Eroni Kumana (left) and Biuku Gasa. 

The view from Danny and Kerrie Kennedy's place atop the hill behind Gizo, looking south-west. This is the direction from which the tsunami approached Gizo and, whilst there are myriad reefs out there - a nightmare for seafarers - it's open and wild. No protection there.

 Six degrees

Six Degrees of Separation is a game played by people with too much time on their hands. After reading this, people may think this includes oceanswims.com. In this game, you sit around the table, such as at a dinner party, and connect two given people who may otherwise have no obvious link.

Eroni Kumana (left) and Biuku Gasa, gazing wistfully over the lagoon from the precise spot from where JFK and his crew were rescued in August, 1943. If you look carefully, you can read Biuku's t-shirt: it reads: "I rescued JFK". That is quite an exclusive shirt. Only Biuku and Eroni can wear one.

The theory goes that everyone is connected to everyone else by a maximum six degrees of separation of physical proximity. Thus, you should be able to connect yourself with Madonna in six easy, if tenuous steps.

For example, given that oceanswims.com once drank in a bar at the same time as Bruce Springsteen (someone who knew him offered to introduce us, but we demurred, figuring the last thing The Boss wanted was another dribbling fan in his mug), so we have one degree of separation from Bruce Springsteen. Some years ago, when he was unemployed with meaningful work (we still are), oceanswims.com worked on a security detail for Frank Sinatra on his last visit to Australia. Our job was to stand by the door to the Sydney International Airport Terminal and, as Sinatra walked through the door, we and a comrade on the other side of the door were to fall in behind as a buffer between Sinatra and his many fans. The only problem was that we didn't recognise Sinatra. We saw a little, fat bloke walk past and, only after a few moments, when we saw some of our colleagues reacting, did we realise this was Ol' Blue Eyes himself. More like, L'il Tubby Belly. But this gave us, too, one degree of separation from Frank Sinatra.