'We had a blast as we rowed across the Atlantic'

Two childhood friends who became the first Manx pair to row across the Atlantic Ocean said it was "absolutely mind-blowing" to complete the feat in 49 days and three hours.

On Saturday, Tim Foster, 57, and Mike Reed, 58, completed the 3,200 mile (5,150km) journey from Lanzarote to the Caribbean island of Antigua.

The pals, who had taken part in the Atlantic Dash, comfortably smashed the previous event record of 52 days and 10 hours.

Foster said: "Cheerfulness was the name of the boat, and cheerfulness was the crossing. We had an absolute blast, most of the time."

The challenge had been something that the two friends had spoken about for some time, and completing the crossing was "overwhelming," Foster said.

"So many things could go wrong but what a relief we made it ahead of time and both fit and well," he said.

The pair would row one hour each and then swap, extending this to two hours each during the night.

Consuming about 4,000 to 6,000 calories in dried food rations each day, they would get a maximum of about 90 minutes sleep at a time during the night before they were next due to row.

"You settle into it, I don't know why, or how, but your body gets used to it, but the first two weeks were not pleasant," he said.

"During some nights, even with the most basic things your brain would not compute at all, it was pure exhaustion, and maybe a bit of dehydration."

Despite feeling bored at times, it was only "short-lived" as there was "always something to do."

"When you're rowing, you want to make the most of it, and when you're not, you're either eating, or sorting out the navigation, or the communication," he said.

Highlights included the wildlife, with three bottlenose whales swimming around the boat at one point.

Another highlight was the surfing.

Foster continued: "Surfing down the big waves, we had the biggest smiles on our faces if we got that right, and having a laugh with Mike was great, we just get on like a house on fire."

However, the journey was not always plain sailing, and just four days in the pair lost all power for about 12 hours.

"At 3am, in big seas and the pitch black, the power went out, we lost the auto pilot which helps us steer, our communication and navigation lights also went down," he said.

"There were ships everywhere, and nobody can see you, we're adrift onto these huge waves, and we had to wait 12 hours for the sun to come up to charge our solar panels, which is where our power came from.

"It's quite a scary feeling, and particularly in big waves, you look at the boat and think, this thing is tiny, and you have to stop yourself. It's a mind over matter job."

Asked whether the feat was what he expected, he said: "It was just the scale of the Atlantic, we had planned to complete it in 50 days, but I never thought about what 50 days and 50 nights of rowing actually looked like.

"The first two weeks were a bit of a shock, but once we got past that point, it became really quite enjoyable."

Describing the moment the pair finally came in, he said: "We went around the corner, and everybody was there - the Manx flags, the cheering, the whistles, the hooters, and the flares, it was absolutely brilliant."

The 7.5m (24.6ft) rowing boat will now be put in a container and shipped back to the UK.

The pair have raised more than £8,000 for Crossroads Care, which supports carers on the Isle of Man.

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