Early Feb. finish in prospect

TWO records have already been broken in the Atlantic Rowing Race and now Guernsey's Mission Atlantic are heading towards another. Thirty-nine days after 26 boats set off from La Gomera in the Canary Islands, All Relative crossed the finish line due south of Cape Shirley, Antigua, on Sunday to win the fourth edition of the event in a new race record time of 39 days, 3hr, 35min. 47sec.

The crew of four relations from Beer in Devon - including Martin Adkin who is the youngest person ever to row the Atlantic having turned 20 only on Saturday - finished with an impressive lead of over 800 miles.

Meanwhile, the Mission Atlantic crew of Kathy Tracey, Sarah Day, Paula Evemy and Lois Rawlins-Duquemin have been rowing well and are now well past the halfway mark with 1,210 miles remaining.

They have continued to move up the fleet and are currently 12th overall with a lead of 142 miles over their all-female four rivals, Rowgirls, who lie in 16th and have now lost one of their crew.

Martyn Priaulx, husband of Tracey, reports that one of the opposition had been lifted off with an injured back.

'To all intents and purposes they are now out of the race because that will be deemed as outside assistance,' said Priaulx.

Whoever finishes first of the two crews will set the inaugural record for their category.

Families and friends of the Sarnians have been given the good news that the four local women were well and in good spirits after a communications failure caused some concern.

The support vessel, Aurora, got in touch with the crew via VHF radio and also went alongside Mission Atlantic to check that everything was OK.

As the satellite phone has been completely out of action since 19 December, the girls wanted to reassure their loved ones that everything was fine on board.

Priaulx says that the Guernsey boat is averaging 40 to 60 miles a day and should be ashore early in February.

'I'm thinking of leaving at the end of the month and that they will be there at the beginning of February, but that's only a guess.'