AFTER a brighter week of weather, the Bolton Atlantic Challenge team have only one thing on their mind as they near Antigua — which Bolton chippy they are going to visit when they get home.

Each of the men has shed one-and-a-half stone since their quest began back in December, despite eating 5,000 calories a day of dehydrated food.

The Bolton News: A map of the Bolton Atlantic Challenge crew’s progress

The crew, made up of Mark Brocklehurst, aged 52, Matt Nuttall, aged 44, Nick Griffiths, aged 42, and Finn Christo, aged 32, started the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge race on December 4 to raise £250,000 for Bolton Lads and Girls Club.

They are hoping to be on dry land by the end of this month.

Mr Brocklehurst said: “Food is the most important subject to us at the moment.

“We are fixated on having a decent meal. We keep thinking about the best chippy or restaurant in Bolton that we can go to when we get home.

“We have about 660 miles to go. We’re doing about 55 a day so we will hopefully arrive a week on Friday. We’re starting to approach single figures now so it’s really exciting.”

Last Monday, the crew had a break from rowing and enjoyed a couple of days of rest and relaxation.

Mr Brocklehurst said: “Since last Monday it’s pretty much started brightening up with calm seas and sunny days. The problem was the wind was pushing us south sending us in the wrong direction so we had to put the anchor in again because we couldn’t afford to go any further south.

“So we ended up having a couple of days off — swimming with the fish, sun bathing on deck and doing some much needed maintenance work to the boat.

“It was frustrating but also quite a nice relief. We started making good progress from Wednesday.

“We’re starting to think about seeing our families again.

“We wanted to get our wives over here for when we finish but it’s looking like it’ll be too expensive, so we’ll probably have to wait until we fly back to Manchester Airport.” Track the team’s progress at taliskerwhiskyatlanticchallenge.com