FOR two friends, Christmas Day lunch still featured turkey but it was more of a dehydrated turkey casserole than a freshly cooked bird.

Jemma Rix and Lauren Woodwiss, known as team Whale of a Time, are two weeks into their Atlantic challenge.

They are rowing more than 3,000 miles across the ocean, covering the distance from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua.

Jemma, 29, from Great Horkesley, said they wanted to push themselves to the limit in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.

They took to the seas on December 12 and hope to beat the world record of 50 days for a female pair to cross from east to west.

There are 27 other teams taking part in the challenge.

The friends posted a Christmas update on their blog. It said: “We’re coming to the end of our second week aboard Boudicea and we’ve finally found a shift pattern which seems to work well for us.

“We’ve had some good consistent higher mileage days recently, and there’s no doubt this is due to our daily scheduled Lady Gaga ‘power hour’ sessions where we manage to both get on the oars together.

“On top of the three whales we saw on the first day, we’ve seen dolphins on five separate occasions and had three sharks follow the boat.

“We also had a moment of shock when a huge shadow appeared about four meters away from the boat whilst we were surfing down a wave.

“We both stood up in the middle of the boat and watched as it surfaced and did three laps around the boat.

“It was about 2.5 metres in length with an electric blue tail, we’re not entirely sure what it was, but will inevitably be googling it when we get home.

“For the time being, he/she has been renamed ‘monster fish’.”

Jemma and Lauren are having a tough time with the weather due to the high winds but it did not ruin their Christmas.

They said: “We had a surreal but lovely Christmas. We had dehydrated turkey casserole, stuffing and gravy and loads of chocolate and Christmas tunes throughout the day.

“We love receiving messages from home, so please keep them coming.”

Their expected finish date is February 11.

Jemma said she would be celebrating her 30th birthday at sea in January with Lauren.

The pair are raising money for Cancer Research UK, Fair Share which fights hunger, and The Mintridge Foundation, which supports children.

Track their progress at Whale of a Time Row on Facebook.