Two lifelong friends from the Isle of Man have completed over half of their incredible 3,200 mile rowing expedition across the Atlantic Ocean - despite battling an early power outage ordeal.

Tim Foster and Mike Reade set off on their boat ‘Cheerfulness’ from Lanzarote on January 24 and have since rowed approximately 2,000 miles of the 3,200-mile journey, with the duo hoping to complete the expedition in the next two to three weeks.

If completed, the journey would make them the first pair from the island to successfully row the crossing.

Speaking about their progress so far, Tim commented: ‘The morale is up and it’s going well! It’s been a lifelong dream of ours to do this.

‘It’s been more of a mental challenge for me - you don’t realise how big the scale of it all is until you’re actually out here.

‘At the moment, we’re absolutely flying because we’ve got good weather conditions including strong winds and waves on our stern, which is helping to push us along.’

Despite the pair’s impressive progress, they faced a huge hurdle in the early stages of the trip due to a power outage (otherwise known as ‘going dark’).

‘We lost all electrical power, which meant our navigation, steering and lights were gone,’ Tim added.

‘We pretty much lost our safety and security while we had to deal with 20ft waves at 3am in the morning.

‘We managed to sort ourselves out and get a grip by putting out a drogue at the back of the boat, which is like a traffic cone on a 60-metre rope that makes sure you’re pointing in the right direction. It was a bit of a scary moment!’

In addition to the physical challenge, Mike and Tim are using the expedition to raise awareness and funds for the Isle of Man charity Crossroads, which provides support to carers and their families.

They have currently raised £3,853 from a £20,000 target.

Speaking about the charity, Tim said: ‘The boat is called Cheerfulness, and so we wanted to pick a cheerful charity to accompany the challenge.

‘Mike is close to Crossroads and has told me all about the great work they do. We have raised over £3,000 so far but there’s still time to go.

‘We’ve also received a lot of support while we’ve been here. We’ve received messages from people we’ve not spoke to for a long time and also a lot of people that we’ve never heard of!

‘It’s also been great to keep in touch with family at home because we have two Starlinks [wifi routers] on the boat.’

To keep up to date with Mike and Tim’s progress, you can visit their Facebook page titled ‘Cheerfulness Atlantic Row’.

If you wish to make a donation or read more about the expedition, you can visit https://givewheel.com/fundraising/9312/team-cheerfulness-rowing-the-atlantic-for-crossroa/