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Mr Sharp said: "We are tired but feel quite ecstatic to have finished. "It was a bit hairy towards the finish... with strong tides and big overfalls in the dark.

West of Babylon is the story of four ageing rockers dragging their increasingly sorry hides around bad hotels and stinking concert halls where they perform as the Furious Overfalls.

We therefore hastened towards a long reef of outlying rocks, which might afford some shelter, as a breakwater, during the night, but found such overfalls near them, that we were again obliged to continue our route alongshore in the dark.

We reached the pier and found a high swell rolling by it, while eddies and overfalls round the outer end of it caused the boat to become more or less unmanageable, driving her first in one direction, then in another, so that she could not be brought very close to, without risk of staving her in against the rocks.

In the channels between Surigao and the islands off the northern coasts, rapid currents are formed and overfalls render navigation dangerous for country vessels.