FOUR heroic North Yorkshire mums have taken their first strokes on an epic journey to row across the Atlantic as they aim to become the oldest crew to row across any ocean.

Helen Butters, 45, Janette Benaddi, 51, Niki Doeg, 44, and Frances Davies, 47, finally waved goodbye to dry land on Sunday morning as they set off on their 3,000 mile journey from the Canary Island of La Gomera to Antigua, in the Caribbean.

The quartet, known as Yorkshire Rows, are one of 26 teams from around the world taking on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

It is billed as the toughest rowing race on earth – more people have been into space than have rowed across the Atlantic – and will see them encounter 30ft waves, sharks, exhaustion, sleep deprivation and seasickness.

The four friends, from York and Selby, expect the journey to take between 42 and 50 days and will row, in pairs, for two hours on and two hours off.

The quartet have packed enough food for 60 days at sea – including tinned sardines, pineapple chunks and mango gin for Christmas Day – and essential equipment, like a water maker to create fresh water from sea water, solar panels for power, a GPS tracker and a satellite phone.

Helen Butters, a mother-of-two, said: “After two years of planning and training it is quite scary that it is finally about to begin, but we really just want to get going and get stuck in.”

Lee Felton from Newcastle, is one half of the Square One Atlantic rowing team, and is raising cash for Rape Crisis.

He said: “I will use my participation in the race to energise and motivate as many people as I can, and at the same time raise money for a good cause."

Joe Mile, from York, is in the Atlantic Lions fours team raising money for MS Trust, said: “We are a novice crew but feel we have a real shot at taking the fours' title in 2015.

“We want to push ourselves to the limit and to raise as much money for the MS Trust as possible.”

Yorkshire Rows are supported by Welcome to Yorkshire and aim to raise in excess of £100,000 for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Maggie’s, who will be opening a new cancer support centre at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds in 2017.

To follow their progress visit blog.mailasail.com/yr.

For more information and to donate to the team visit www.yorkshirerows.com, www.facebook.com/yorkshirerows2015 or follow @YorkshireRows Twitter.

For information on the rest of the teams visit www.taliskerwhiskyatlanticchallenge.com.