Strangeway island adventures

Andy, 41, of Full Sutton, near Pocklington, has braved severe weather conditions and treacherous seas to attempt to become the first person to spend a night on 162 islands around the Scottish coast.

He has already camped on 135 of the islands since he embarked on his adventure in September, 2003.

Now Andy's final push to camp on the remaining 27 islands could be screened on TV. He says several production companies have expressed an interest in documenting the feat.

The adventurer, who works as a decorator when he is not island hopping, has also nearly completed the first volume of the book about his experiences - which has drawn the attention of major publishers.

"Everything is building really nicely," Andy told The Press.

"All the boatmen are now in place and I've got permission to go on every island I need to. A book deal is imminent one way or another and I'm hoping to do radio broadcasts from the islands using a satellite phone. I'm also currently having direct talks with a major TV company. I don't think people realise the enormity of what I've done."

Andy said he hoped to camp out on his next island by March and complete the "really wild ones" by May or June.

They will include the remote island of Rona, where the nearest person will be 40 miles away.

Andy has been able to access some of the islands by ferry and through one-off tourist visits.

But to get to some of the more remote islands he has been forced to charter a boat and jump off it while it slowly passed the island, since many of them do not have mooring sites.

He then jumped back on the boat the following day.

Andy was inspired to take on the challenge after reading The Scottish Islands, by Hamish Haswell-Smith.

He has now travelled to the Hebrides, Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles and one island on the Scottish east coast.

"The people living in these areas are in awe of what I've done," he said.

"It's just normal to me now."