A BASINGSTOKE man is part of a four-member ocean row team that will compete in the inaugural race of the TWAC Pacific Challenge 2023.

Andy Warner has joined his teammates as his Team Flyin’ Fish took to the water for the first time this month off the coast of Devon and Cornwall in their Rannoch R45 boat ‘Voyager’.

The team of four ocean row veterans are preparing for the race that will leave Monterey, California and will finish in Nawiliwili harbour, Kauai, The Hawaiian Islands, after rowing some 4500 kms completely unsupported.

Only 80 people have ever previously rowed from the US mainland to the Hawaiian islands over the deepest, most hostile ocean notorious for huge seas.

Andy resides in Basingstoke and works as truck driver for a logistics company that supplies McDonalds.

He has previously rowed the Atlantic in 2015.

The other members of the team are Alison Wannell (skipper) from Chagford, Devon, Elaine Theaker from Abergavenny, Wales, and Neil Blackeby from Camelford, Cornwall.

The team is also raising funds for the Air Ambulance UK.

You can get more information about the team here.

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