9 p.m. PDT

Tony's still taking his 39.5-km break. He's only 500 m down from his original plan.

UPDATE: Tony's eating, and Dave is going to join him for the last 2.7 km.

34 & 35 km

Sorry for the delay - been an eventful hour.

Tony hit 35 km at 13:22, and I extrapolated a 10:20 p.m. finish. But he started drinking defizzed Coke, and seemed to be doing better. He went to the washroom twice, and had a hit of oxygen, and began negotiating - not a bad thing here. If he swims 1 km/h he can finish ...

Anyway, at 7 p.m. PDT he was at 35.9 km, only 1oo m down. He hit 36 km at 14:01, so I'm now extrapolating 17:51. Right or wrong, I detect a change in his attitude. I didn't capture it with the camera, but we saw the old Tony grin, and he even had a "groupie" come up to him. :-)

We all applauded as he struck out again. And after a very brief break, he's swimming again.

Tony's back in the water

Tony threw up - probably a good thing - declined a hit of oxygen from the staff, and is back in the water after nearly 20 minutes between 500s. He's asked for Pringles and chicken broth, though, which is probably on the right path to getting some food into him.

The probably means no more day-old Wendy's chicken fingers, which is surely a good thing.

Tony now needs to dig deep into his suitcase of courage. He has four hours of suffering, mental & physical, ahead of him.

More on Tony's diet

Tony hasn't been eating the PowerBar Blasts he loves for a few hours. Rhonda's concerned, quite rightly, that he's not eating enough, and that's behind his low spirits.

Tony's diet

Someone asked what he's eating. Mostly, he's drinking Gatorade and eating, gulp, Wendy's chicken fingers from the night before (as shown in the picture).

I forgot to note that at 32 km he was still 12 minutes ahead of schedule. He'd done 76% of the total distance.