The Seas the Day duo, Jess Rowe and Miriam Payne, are now five and a half thousand miles into their epic journey across the Pacific Ocean – a challenge that finds them around three-quarters of the way between Peru and their end finishing line in Cairns, Australia.

With two and a half thousand miles left to go, the team send us an update from their make-shift ocean home, with both beautiful sunsets and the finishing line on the horizon.

The pair who make up the Seas the Day Ocean Rowing Team restarted their attempt on the 5th of May after being forced to return to land when the rudder on their boat Velocity broke just 350 miles from the start point (Lima, Peru). But with much of the journey now behind them, spirits are high between the pair.

“We’ve had a lot of obstacles to overcome and we’re really proud of how we’ve handled it as a team,” Jess tells Oceanographic Magazine. “Despite these tough moments, we are happy and healthy and loving our life at sea.”

If crossing the pacific is not hard enough in itself, they have had to deal with issues with their power system not charging properly, a lack of sun to charge the power system, an intake pipe to their water system that keeps breaking, and more. Nonetheless the driven pair have persisted.

Along the way, it has been nature that has continually lifted them. Beyond sea birds and flying fish, the duo has encountered a sperm whale, orca, sea turtles, schools of fish, and of course, dolphins.

“We’ve had some incredible highs. In the past weeks we’ve had a visit from a sperm whale and a huge pod of dolphins,” says Miriam. “We have been so lucky with all our wildlife encounters lately and it’s always a true honour to observe sea life in their natural habitat. The dolphins were such fun and playful creatures to watch. It was really cool seeing them above us, surfing down the waves and playing in our wake.”

Based on their current rate of progress, Jess and Miriam expect to reach their finishing line in Australia by mid-October. To get there, the pair are rowing up to 15 hours a day – two hours on, two hours off. When they’re not rowing, they’re eating (around 5,000 calories a day) or attempting to sleep in between cleaning the boat, and checking and maintaining equipment.

The team is aiming to raise £50,000 for The Outward Bound Trust, a UK-based charity which helps children develop lifelong skills through adventure.

Their boat Velocity, a 9m long Rossiter Ocean 2 Rowing Boat is laden with safety and communications equipment, over 200 days’ worth of food, and other unique technologies on board to help them both recover and eat better.

Here’s what Seas the Day have to tell us here at Oceanographic Magazine: