Hi Mark, everything you and Nick have said is true in that it is your belief (to which I have agreed) that I am asking for others to pay for my adventure. However I disagree with both of you that I am setting myself up to be the next person on "I shouldn't be alive", I haven't just grabbed a paddle and set off, the time of year I am planning to go is during the dry season and the trade winds will be in my favour, the longest crossing of this whole 5 month adventure is 50km, most days will only be 20km +/- between islands. The crossing from Australia to PNG has been done by others who I have read about during my 10 month research, and the trip took them 2 weeks, I'm allowing 4 weeks so as to be able to spend a greater amount of time exploring the islands as well as allowing plenty of time so that I'll only be travelling in favourable conditions and with favourable tides. The Klepper kayaks we'll be using are more stable then a hard body, being wider, etc. I'm sure this statement my bring a few responses from hard-body enthusiast to the contrary.
Obviously I am not planning to show hours and hours of kayaking during this adventure, but what people are interested in is sports fishing in remote places, isolated communities and traditional life styles, etc.
The trip isn't planned to start until June 2013 - November.
As for the training, obviously I will be doing kayaking courses as well as training with a local kayaking club in the months prior to June.
I'm just an ordinary guy who with the support of my wife I'm trying to have a crack at making a dream come alive and share the experience with others, I'm not suicidal and not planning to simply jump in a kayak and head off without first knowing everything there is to know about local conditions and spend a considerable amount of time talking with experts who have been there as well as training in the kayaks.