TWO North-East men last night began their bid to cross the Atlantic in under 35 days.

George Rock and Nigel Morris, from Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, set off from St John's Newfoundland, Canada, at 9pm, after previous launches were held up by bad weather.

Weather conditions were last night reported to be fair, with a light north-easterly wind of eight to ten knots for the first stage of the row. Conditions are set to remain favourable for the next two to three days.

The Teesside men have Mark Stubbs and Rob Munslo as team-mates. If successful, the Skandia Ocean Row team will become the fastest ocean rowing team in history to complete an Atlantic crossing.

This would entitle them to two entries in the Guinness Book of Records: the fastest West-to-East trans-Atlantic row (crewed) and the fastest trans-Atlantic row (overall).

The world record has stood for more than 100 years, set by the two-man team of Harbo and Samuelson in 1896, in an 18ft wooden whaler boat called the Richard K Fox. It took them 55 days to arrive in the Isles of Scilly.

Their record was tied only by solo rower Tom McClean, who matched their time 90 years later in a boat called Skoll 1080.

Virtual updates are available on www.skandiaoceanrow.com and www.bbc.co.uk/oceanrow to those who are following the attempt.