SOLO round-the-world sailor Adrian Flanagan has been struck down with fever in the middle of the Pacific.

The 45-year-old father-of-two, pictured, set off from Hamble last October in a bid to sail single-handed around the globe via the polar regions.

Although he is still on course he has been hit with health problems and in his latest dispatch he says: "I have gone through a bit of a bad patch healthwise in the last week.

"I developed a fever and stomach cramps which have persisted for seven days so far.

"I think the water in the tanks may be contaminated as far as drinking is concerned'' For drinking water he now directs the watermaker's product output into jerry cans and uses the tank water for all other domestic chores.

Adrian, who is in the North Pacific off the coast of Mexico, says: "On top of the stomach aches, I have a nasty sty on my left eye probably caused by stress with all the worry about the Arctic phase.

"I have been reading voraciously while allowing my body to repair itself. This fever is a nuisance. Whenever I stand or sit up, the sweat comes in buckets.

"So I spend a lot of time horizontal. Last night a cruise ship passed close by, maybe two miles off my starboard side, presumably en route to Honolulu.

"It gave me quite a shock. I went on deck for some air. It's stifling in the cabin despite open hatches and portholes and there it was, this oasis of bright lights.

"I thought about the passengers on board sitting down to three-course dinners, taking hot showers, sleeping in beds." Adrian added: "It's amazing how the luxuries of everyday life recede to distant figments. I'm missing trees again and flowers and riding a bicycle and the way the sun can glint off a girl's hair and the smell of cut grass and the hubbub of conversation in a crowded room."

The adventurer has now covered more than 20,000 miles in his quest to capture one of the ocean's great single-handed prizes which remained unclaimed for good reason a six foot wall of ice 200-300 miles in length prevented access to the Arctic Ocean between the northern coast of Russia and the North Pole.

Two decades ago the ice fields began to open up amid growing concern they might vanish altogether by the end of the century as a consequence of global warming.