Cornwall rowers finish Atlantic race in 40 days

A rowing team from Cornwall have finished their "epic adventure" to cross the Atlantic Ocean after 40 days at sea.

Oars Of Thunder was comprised of champion gig rowers Nathaniel Rothwell and Harry Poulson, as well as Looe Rowing Club members Kim Tolfrey and Sally Crab.

The team travelled 3,000 miles (4,828 km) as part of the World's Toughest Row race and finished first in the mixed class, fifth in the four rower class and sixth overall.

After reaching the finish line in Antigua, Ms Crabb said: "It was so overwhelming. It was an epic adventure that you can't easily recreate, it was just perfect."

Ahead of their launch, Ms Crabb told BBC Radio Cornwall the group had fears including how they would cope missing family and friends, whether they would be sea sick and if they would encounter any sharks.

Discussing her personal fears, she said: "For me, personally, I had a fear of the waves and how big they might be.

"There was a lot of nervousness around the unknown and not knowing what it was really going to be like out there."

But the conditions were generally good.

She said: "We had a generally pleasant journey; we didn't have any headwinds and we didn't have to put out our power anchor, which would stop us from blowing backwards.

"So we were always moving forward and, for the majority of that time, we had good winds and good swell."

The Looe-based team even encountered plenty of wildlife throughout their journey, including a marlin and a turtle that they managed to save from netting.

Ms Crabb said: "The boys leant over and grabbed hold of her and one of them got a knife to cut the netting.

"She did a little bit of splashing with her flippers because she wasn't keen at first but then she seemed to realise we were there to help her."

Despite their stop off, the crew still managed to finish well and needed to put everything into keeping their position.

"Towards the end we were so close to the other crews we could see one of their navigation lights, so we went three up to make sure we did finish before them," she said.

Oars of Thunder hope to raise £50,000 for the RNLI following their journey.

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