HMS Oardacious crew receive Christmas messages from family while on Atlantic row
The Royal Navy submariner rowing team taking on a 3,000-mile row across the Atlantic have received Christmas messages from their families.
HMS Oardacious is one of the military teams who set off from the Canary Islands on 12 December to take on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.
As well as opening the video messages from the middle of the Atlantic, the submariners also tweeted: "Merry Christmas to everyone from the whole team."
"The guys have family videos to open today to make them feel a little more 'at home'," the post said.
On Facebook, the team said "as excited children around the world arose this morning to see if Santa had been, the team continued on in their quest, stroke by stroke, rowing across the Atlantic".
"Whilst the team will take some time out of the busy day of rowing to wish each other a Merry Christmas, and it definitely is a celebration – it can also be a challenging time.
"Not just for the rowers, but for their families back at home.
"Being apart from the people you most love at Christmas can be very hard.
"And whilst this team's family, more than most, are prepared for this sort of thing from dealing with military deployment – this feels a little different.
"But, each of the guys will take a few minutes at some point today to give their loved ones a call to wish them a Merry Christmas, to tell them they love them, and perhaps to share a Christmas cracker joke or two.
"And they will know that everything is good at home, as last night, as they sat under the night sky watching the shooting stars... one particular shooting star shone brighter and left a trail through the sky... Santa was on his rounds to all the children, ready for Christmas morning!"
The team have currently rowed 938 nautical miles, with 1,753 miles left to reach the finish line in Antigua.
They are currently travelling at a speed of 3.1 knots and have a current bearing of 252.96°.
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