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Rowers set to reach most north-westerly point
22 June 2005

FOUR rowers attempting a world record for rowing non-stop 2,000 miles around the British mainland are set reach the most north-westerly point on their amazing expedition today (Wednesday). The GB Row Challenge team will reach Cape Wrath during today, where they will face treacherous rip tides. They are still on target to reach John O’Groats and the Pentland Firth on Thursday.

When Will de Laszlo, Ben Jesty, James Bastin and Will Turnage met the Duke of Edinburgh, patron of the Outward Bound Trust, at the expedition’s official launch on May, he warned the crew about the perils they faced on this leg of the journey.

On Wednesday morning they were again rowing their 23-feet-long boat, Outward Bound, in pouring rain and under leaden skies which means they crew are now rationed to two-litres of drinking water per man.

For eleven days now the skies have been, overcast which means solar panels used to power their on-board desalination unit have not been able to generate enough electricity.

The crew rely on the desalination unit to turn seawater into drinking water for the expedition, which is likely to last around two more weeks given fair weather.

Non-stop circumnavigation of Great Britain in a rowing boat has never been attempted before. Because of Britain's treacherous tides and crowded shipping lanes, this is one of the most dangerous journeys ever to be made in a rowing boat.

	The crew’s navigator company director Will Turnage, 25, from Lymington, Hants said today (Wed): “We will reach Cape Wrath today and will most probably be going past John O’ Groats on Thursday morning. We’re still averaging 70 miles a day with a south-westerly wind helping us on our way.” Skipper Lt Will de Laszlo added: “As well as tricky tides around the Cape and the Pentland Firth, our biggest problem is still a lack of water – even though it’s raining. Because the solar panels aren’t able to produce enough power we are limiting everyone to two litres of drinking water a day. “Things are not so bad that we are licking rain off the decks, just yet!”, he joked.

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