Cargo ship sent to rescue five Britons and one Irishman who were trying to row from Morocco to Barbados
An attempt to row across the Atlantic has ended after the boat capsized and left six sailors from Britain and Ireland adrift in a life raft and waiting to be rescued.
The crew of the Sara G, who had been trying to row from Morocco to Barbados, were 27 days into their journey when the 11.1metre (36ft) vessel overturned at 11am on Monday, 520 miles from their destination.
A cargo ship was expected to reach the men – five Britons and one Irishman – in the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to coastguards in Falmouth, Cornwall, who are co-ordinating the rescue with authorities in Martinique.
The crew were said to be safe and well in the life raft, which they had lashed to the hull of their overturned boat.
A coastguard said: "The shore contact for the Sara G managed to get through to the crew of the boat via satellite phone and ascertained that the boat had capsized and they had abandoned to the life raft, which was tethered to the capsized vessel. All crew are said to be safe and well."
The website of the Atlantic Odyssey challenge, which organised the expedition, names the crew as captain Matt Craughwell; Ian Rowe, a 45-year-old father of four; Aodhan Kelly, 26, from Dublin, Ireland; Simon Brown, 37, a father of three from Wiltshire; father-of-two Yaacov Mutnikas; and 29-year-old Mark Beaumont, a documentary maker from Perthshire, Scotland.
They were rowing from Tarfaya in Morocco to Port St Charles in Barbados with the aim of becoming the first crew in history to break the sub-30 day barrier, calling it "ocean rowing's very own four-minute mile".
Writing on the crew's blog on Sunday, Craughwell said the boat was struggling to make headway because of "no wind and swells from every direction".
"With the calm of the Atlantic Sara G has not only had her toughest week of the expedition, but her toughest week under my watch," he said.
"Yesterday saw us post only 60 nautical miles with a mixed bag of no wind and swells from every direction. Despite all of this the crew have battled on to make this small total. It has now made our world record attempt become the most difficult 10 days we will spend at sea this year. Morale is high and we hope for good weather soon, but it seems everything is against us at the moment!"