It’s the Final Countdown! Here’s your week 5 update.

So the storm passed as the boys rowed on, and conditions have become much more favourable. And for the first time we had drone footage sent back to us on land, which shows just truly how vast the ocean is, with no other teams in sight, just miles and miles of blue (see featured image). From what we’ve heard the guys are still getting along swimmingly, despite not seeing anyone else for a month now. On day 30 the crew passed the 1000nm to go mark, the countdown to the finish line is very much on! We do hope you tuned in to hear Xav live on BBC Radio Solent, catching up with Lucy Ambache about life on the water and hitting this milestone.

We were quite shocked by our day 34 update, as, would you believe it, it rained! But besides the random shake up in the weather, the guys have been sounding a little deflated. Although its hard to blame them with the constant and tough conditions, which must feel relentless from day to day. The objective has been to keep pushing and find those trade winds in an attempt to gain a helping hand from mother nature.

As the days went on the boys continued their usual tasks, such as cleaning the hull and removing barnacles, but took the opportunity to check the Sargassum seaweed for seahorses. Neil from the Seahorse Trust, one of our charities, told us about a rare species that lives in it’s branches, but unfortunately there wasn’t a sighting on this occasion.

Day 38 and there’s now less than 500nm to go! The end is just around the corner, and to celebrate Manni sent back some footage he had taken under the boat of a dreaded Marlin spotting. These creatures have been feared in recent years due to their spear-like bills piercing the hulls of rowing boats, usually because they miss small fish that hide against the hull for safety. But all is well for Mermaid Atlantic, and thanks to Kevlar protection, the crew should be fine if a strike was to happen.

The current ETA of the crew is Saturday 27th at roughly 6:20pm GMT. For daily posts from the support team on land, please check out our social media pages linked at the top and bottom of this page. And if you can donate to our charities, then it would be most appreciated if you head to our donation page. We’re overjoyed to have gone passed the 100% mark, but everything above and beyond is also gratefully received. Many thanks to our sponsors and supporters, your messages of encouragement is keeping the team motivated!