Dom Mee and his British Quest Ocean Rowing Team are now just 100 miles from Barbados after their epic row across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands and should complete their journey tomorrow morning.

The four men – Mee, Ed James, Tom Rendell and Pete Bird – who set off from La Palma in early January have been rowing two at a time catching just the odd hour sleep for 37 days. They have now run out of food and all supplies, bar water, and have unfortunately missed the record crossing time by just two days. However, they will be recorded as one of the fastest teams to have ever rowed across the Atlantic. The time they needed to beat was 35 days and 8 hours set in 1992 by Frenchman La Mondial and his eight strong team.

Chatting from the boat today Mee described the taxing, last day of the crossing:
“We are currently north of track and crosswinds are preventing us from steering south to Barbados. We are coming in hot and we are only just laying the northern point of Barbados. It is a pretty daunting prospect of coming in on the North shore, it is far from ideal. We are heading for a remote beach just about the only spot we can come in.”

Logistics shore manager Chris Collison has been working on this expedition since its conception and says: “After having detailed discussions with the Barbados Coastguard who have voluntarily offered to oversee the team’s arrival, we have surveyed the North Point area and there is a possibility of getting the lads into a small bay west of Touce Point, Lt Roberts at the Coastguard has been very helpful and although it is a possibility that the team can get in there, it is not ideal; the bay is remote, surrounded by cliffs and there will be a terrific ocean swell, it may be fairly easy to get in and touch land but getting out even under tow could be a bit risky.

“We won’t compromise safety for anything and we will need to see what the sea state is like at the time.”