'I'm tired, I won't lie' Rowers crossing Pacific hit 100 days

The physical and mental challenges have been immense, the setbacks numerous.

- Steven Morris

The pair have endured searingly hot days and chilly nights and dealt with debilitating blisters and salt sores. They have faced equipment failures (using underpants to fix one crucial bit of kit) and feared curious marlins swimming under their boat might pierce their hull.

Miriam Payne and Jess Rowe, who are two-thirds of the way through an 8,000-mile row across the Pacific from Peru to Australia, are weary - but relishing the experience.

Speaking to the Guardian via satellite phone at a dawn shift change - they do two hours on, two off during the night - Rowe said: "I'm very tired, I won't lie. It's just so hard to wake up for your shift. We're both not even hearing our alarms any more. They go off for 10 or 15 minutes and then whoever's rowing has to wake the other. It's pretty tough. Apart from the sleep deprivation, we're loving it."

Rowe, 28, from Hampshire, and Payne, 26, from East Yorkshire, are veterans of Atlantic rows. If they succeed in this challenge, they will become the first women's team and the first pair to row the Pacific non-stop and unsupported.