A week into their voyage, two people attempting to row across the Atlantic have faced high winds, high seas, equipment breakages and the occasional passing shark.

But, based on e-mails from Roy Finlay and Colleen Cronin, their spirits remain high.

Finlay, 38, from Scotland and Cronin, 29 from New York, departed July 28 from Quidi Vidi aboard their seven-metre rowing boat Celtic Crossing.

Almost as soon as they left, the weather changed.

“Departure went well with a southwest wind,” the pair wrote in their first e-mail to shore.

“From then on the elements have done everything in their power to prevent us from heading in an easterly direction. The winds have been SE, NE, E and N.”

The Celtic Crossing and its crew faced the same high winds and heavy seas that affected other shipping in the North Atlantic.

Other vessels affected

Earlier this week, two of the vessels entered in the tall ships race from Halifax suffered problems due to the weather, one losing a mast, the other forced to evacuate an injured crew member.

Celtic Crossing didn’t escape the weather unscathed either, according to an e-mail sent Tuesday from Cronin.

“We rowed all day yesterday (Monday) against an easternly (sic) wind and gained no ground. It’s getting rather frustrating,” Cronin wrote. “Yesterday, Roy repaired the rudder which cracked off and drifted away Sunday evening during the rough weather. We had to chop some plywood from our bunk to repair it.”

What with the high winds and heavy seas, Celtic Crossing hasn’t been making as much progress as hoped. Before they left, the intention was to cover 70 miles a day in an attempt to break the 55-day record for the west-east Atlantic crossing.

As of Wednesday at 5 p.m., the Celtic Crossing’s position was listed as N48 degrees 26 minutes, W52 degrees 29 minutes.

According to the Canadian Coast Guard plot, that places the vessel about 35 miles ESE of Catalina, about 50 miles NNE of Cape St. Francis.

Despite the slow progress, messages from the pair show they are far from disheartened.

“We now hear the winds are supposed to change today. We should see a SW, we hope to see anything West,” Cronin wrote.

And while they wait for the winds to change, Cronin reports that there’s plenty to watch.

“We have seen plenty of dolphins which I thought were sharks, whales, and then last night, sharks which I thought were dolphins. They were circling the boat for hours. I felt like I was in Jaws movie,” Cronin wrote. “We have also experienced beautiful sunsets and sunrises.”