THEY have battled a hurricane, been attacked by flying fish and are suffering from painfully sore backsides – but the intrepid mums of the Yorkshire Rows are still going strong.

The four have now passed the half-way mark in their Herculean challenge to row across the Atlantic and despite all the rigours are showing no signs of flagging.

Around three weeks into their journey, the North Yorkshire quartet encountered Hurricane Alex – and were forced to ride out the storm from the safety of their cramped cabins.

They have also had to contend with power failure, which has affected their autopilot, GPS tracking systems, and water maker - leaving them steering by hand using a compass and manually converting sea water into drinking water.

However Janette Benaddi, 51, from Burn, Helen Butters, 45, from Cawood, Niki Doeg, 44, from Hessay, and Frances Davies, 47, from York are still cheerfully struggling on.

“We are all really happy to have passed the half way mark and we are all still in really high spirits,” said Helen.

“We are basically just rowing, eating and sleeping. It is hard, especially not seeing our families, but we knew it was going to be tough.”

The Yorkshire Rows are one of 26 teams who set out on the 3,000-mile Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge on December 20 and if successful in the journey from the Canary Islands to Antigua they will become the oldest all-female crew to row across any ocean.

“The scariest bit was during the hurricane when the rain was lashing down, there were really high winds and thunder and lightning,” said Helen.

“For three to four days we didn’t move and were confined to the cabins – with two people in each one you really can’t move in them.

“But we have also been visited by a whale which stayed with us for two hours, and have rowed with a pod of 15 to 20 dolphins which was absolutely amazing.”

She added: “I suffered with really bad seasickness during the first week, and Niki has a bad infection in her fingernail and bruised coccyx after falling over, but we haven’t missed a shift and are still in good spirits.

“We have all been inspired by each other, and are so much closer than we were before. We really can’t wait to see our families in Antigua and are really going to appreciate things a bit more – I think in that sense it will change our lives.”

The quartet hope their gruelling efforts will raise more than £100,000 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and cancer charity Maggies.

To follow their progress live, visit taliskerwhiskyatlanticchallenge.com/race-tracker