Sailors in Captain Bligh epic near journey's end

The four-man crew was cast adrift off the coast of Tonga on April 29 – at the exact same location where Bligh and his sailors from HMS Bounty started some 221 years ago.

They are expected to reach Kupang in West Timor some time today after the epic journey in the 25ft long Talisker Bounty Boat. The arrival is several days ahead of schedule thanks to "good sailing winds".

On board are Australian skipper Don McIntyre, British gap-year student Chris Wilde, 18, fellow Briton David Wilkinson, 49, and Australian Dave Pryce, 39.

Their 7ft wide vessel has the same deprivations as the original sailors, cast adrift from HMS Bounty on April 28 1789, in the middle of the Pacific without navigation charts or everyday items such as a torch and toilet paper.

They also had just two weeks' water supply and limited food.

Wilde, from Warwick, answered an appeal in a newspaper article to join the crew after Mike Perham, who became the youngest person to circumnavigate the world solo with assistance in August last year, withdrew after suffering appendicitis.

He said the challenge was "a once in a lifetime opportunity".

The crew hopes to raise about 150,000 for the Sheffield Institute Foundation for Motor Neurone Disease.