A 54-YEAR-OLD mum who rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic with two other middle-aged women has relived the horror of a monster 40ft wave crashing down on their 23ft-long boat.

Back home after her amazing adventure, Monmouth Rowing Club’s Elaine Theaker said they were a day from finishing in Antigua when the giant wall of water tossed them into the raging sea.

“We began rising up its side, then felt the water break on top of us, pouring over the gunnels. An oar caught the surf and flipped the boat over, catapulting myself and crewmate Sharon (Magrath) out,” she said.

“Although tethered to the boat, we still flew and were thrown under the boat with no chance of a gulp of air. The water tossed us about as if in a washing machine.”

She said they had were rowing in terrible 40 knot winds and an electrical storm when she spotted the monster wave after 59 days at sea.

“It was 12m (40ft) perhaps, the height of a three-storey building, lurking on the horizon. As I heaved on the oars, I prayed the wave wouldn’t crest by us and tip us in, but as it drew closer, I knew we were in trouble,” said Elaine, who took up rowing on the Wye in 2011.

Shocked and injured by the wave’s impact, they somehow managed to scramble back on board, but were unable to raise crewmate Di Carrington, 62, who had been in the tiny cabin when the boat capsized, but didn’t answer their furious knocking on the door.

Fearing she had been knocked unconscious, it was a massive relief when they finally realised she was still inside making an emer-

gency call on the satellite phone, only for another giant wave to throw them back overboard again

“Just as she opened the door, another monster wave struck,” said Elaine. “Surf gushed in, half flooding the cabin and tipping the boat, so Sharon and I were flung out into the water once more.”

Scrambling back on board, and with Elaine suffering from a huge haematoma on her leg and a possible fractured pelvis, and Sharon a bruised back and sternum, the terror rose as they realised more massive waves were “circling like sharks”.

But there was “grim news” from race control, who were unable to get to them because the sea was so wild.

“They told us we would need to row through the night as letting the boat drift would risk us missing Antigua completely,” said Elaine. “The sea was whipping into a frenzy and we knew that rowing in the dark would mean we wouldn’t see the waves coming, and we could be tipped blind into the waters, but there was no choice.

“I swallowed some painkillers and with Sharon too injured to row, Di steered and I grabbed the oars. We were terrified, and rowed the next eight hours straight, living on adrenalin, sharing the rowing and steering between us.

“I can’t describe the relief when, two miles out, we saw the bright lights of the search and rescue boat.”

Met by her husband Steve and 15-year-old son Che after 60 days at sea, and in a daze and unable to walk, she was taken to hospital for X-rays, only then realising that she’d drunk less than 500ml of water and eaten just two Mars bars in the last two days.

“We’d survived, but there was no doubt it had been high drama at sea,” said Elaine, who joked that the trip was a “midlife crisis”

The Atlantic Ladies set a record time of 60 days 18 hours for three women rowing across the ocean, while they also became the oldest women’s crew and Di became the oldest woman.

The trio set off from San Sebastian de La Gomera on December 14, rowing more than three million strokes in shifts of two hours on, two hours off, and have so far raised more than £12,000 to split between the Alzheimers Society, the Motor Neurone Disease Association and Relapsing Polychrondritis UK.

And although parts of the row in their boat Poppy were a huge ordeal, there were glorious moments, such as a pod of dolphins joining them, whales swimming by and two stripy pilot fish they nicknamed Boris and Doris following them for weeks, feeding on their food scraps.

“Sometimes we’d be terribly homesick and other times we’d be exhausted and physically low, with salt sores on our bums and aching joints, making each rowing stroke painful,” admitted Elaine.

“But there were also great moments of peace and beauty, like when we could take a dip in a warm, calm ocean - bliss.”

A musical play about their epic crossing in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge race, called Atlantic Ladies, is due to be performed later this year.The Atlantic Ladies are also hoping to raise more for their charities with a charity auction on Saturday, April 28, at Abergavenny's Kings Arms Hotel. See atlanticladies.co/blog for more information.