Row2Recovery veterans' complete Atlantic challenge
- Published
Four ex-serviceman have become the first amputees to row across the Atlantic.
The group, who set off from the Canary Islands on 20 December, took 47 days to complete the 3,000-mile row to Antigua.
Lee Spencer, Nigel Rogoff, Paddy Gallagher and Cayle Royce finished fifth out of the 26 competing crews.
The Talisker Challenge - described as "the world's toughest row" - got off to a difficult start, with severe sea sickness hitting the team.
Rowers
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Cayle Royce - 29, from Dartmouth. Suffered serious injuries serving in Afghanistan
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Paddy Gallagher - 30, from Cambridgeshire. He was injured in Afghanistan while serving with the Irish Guards
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Nigel Rogoff - 56, from Hereford, who lost his leg while taking part in an RAF parachuting display
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Lee Spencer - 46, from Yelverton in Devon. He lost a leg when he was struck by debris when he stopped to rescue a seriously injured motorist on the M3
The team, who named their boat Legless, also had to contend with huge waves and sleep deprivation, rowing for two hours on and two hours off, twenty four hours a day.
They crossed the finish line in 46 days, 16 hours and 49 minutes.
A tweet from Kensington Palace is among the hundreds of messages of congratulations for the crew on social media.
The exhausted, but jubilant, skipper Cayle Royce, who lost both his legs in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan, said: "We are so proud to be the first all-amputee team to row an ocean and extremely humbled by the support we have received."
He said the message the team wanted to send out was that there was life beyond injury.
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