There was a book about Crowhurst. I think it was called The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst. It is a fairly interesting read. I don't think it parallels Ryan's trip all that much, but there are certainly some similarities (I hope not too many).

The lack of word from him could mean that the trip has pretty much tanked and he has either given up or is making poor enough progress that he doesn't want to report it. It might be that he is still trying to pull it together and is waiting until he has some more reasonable progress to report. It is hard to imagine that he pretty much has never said what is daily mileages are or where he stayed and when. He could pass that on to his webmaster in one quick phone call and I am sure he has a signal once in a while.