Wife rows Atlantic without husband

Husband and wife reunited

LONDON, England -- British rower Debra Veal received a kiss from her husband after crossing the Atlantic despite him dropping out of the journey.

Debra, 27, was left to make the 111-day voyage from Tenerife to Barbados single-handed after husband Andrew gave up two weeks into the arduous adventure complaining of fear of the ocean.

He dropped out after suffering crippling panic attacks despite 15 years' experience as a top-level club rower.

His wife continued in the Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Challenge finishing on Saturday becoming the 11th woman to have crossed an ocean -- six of them having been British.

The couple from London have been married for three years, and were the only husband-and-wife entry out of 36 pairs of amateur rowers when they set off from the Canary Islands on October 7 last year.

After her husband dropped out, Debra took on the responsibility of powering the 750kg yacht Troika Transatlantic, defying her husband's assumption that she would give up also.

During the past four months at sea she has risen daily at 5.30am to row all day, resting when she needed to.

At night she got up hourly to look out for supertankers.

Kenneth Crutchlow, executive director of the Ocean Rowing Society, said: "I think it's an incredible achievement and she should be congratulated."

Mike Kenney, chief executive of Ward Evans, said: "Debra has shown exceptional courage and determination to complete this awesome challenge and she is a real role model and inspiration."