Sometimes it's the little things that make for a great day of adventure racing. Mike Tobin of team Nike gave me the lowdown on the desert island camp and the following day's paddle.

"We were on a tiny little island with all the other teams, enjoying a beautiful sunset. We hat lots of food."

And the next day: "We had a light breeze at our back all day long. No big swells on the Gulf. And a nice temperature."

The team's certainly had worse! They may come away from Abu Dhabi wondering if they'd been in an adventure race, or something of a race/vacation hybrid!