A team of women aiming to become the first all-female crew to row the Pacific Ocean have suffered a huge blow in their bid for the world record attempt.

The Coxless Crew foursome - featuring Marlow rower Emma Mitchell - were just under two weeks into their epic 8446-mile trek from the US to Australia when they suffered a problem with their electrics in specially made pink boat ‘Doris’.

Along with her colleagues, Emma - who revealed to the BFP in January she suffers from seasickness - has been keeping a regular blog to update loved ones on the foursome’s marine adventures.

And the battery problem forced them back to the Californian shore, where they are hoping to fix the problem and make a fresh start.

As they turned back to shore, the team posted: "Try as we might, the universe seems to have been a little against us these last couple of weeks.

"We’ve battled sea sickness, huge ocean swells and 25 knot winds and we were happy to keep moving when we could stroke by stroke and eventually head in the right direction.

"This has unfortunately had to be halted for the moment.

"We have been informed that we can make it back to Santa Barbara and there our intention is to get the battery system looked at and still make it within our weather window to get back out and hopefully make it into the illusive trade winds to complete the first leg of the journey to Hawaii and keep raising the money and awareness for our charities.

"We will fight and overcome all our adversities as that is what our challenge is all about."

Marlow Rowing Club member Emma celebrated her 30th birthday last Saturday, saying the crew threw an impromptu party for her hundreds of miles out to sea - complete with balloons and Champagne.

Last week, she vivdly painted a picture of life in the ocean with "waves the size of houses", as the crew spend 24 hours eating, sleeping and rowing aboard Doris.

Once the crew are back out to sea, the whole trip is expected to take around six months.

Famous names in support of the voyage include explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Sir Chay Blythe, the first person to sail non-stop westwards around the world.

Their adventure - featured on TV - is raising money for injured servicemen charity Walking With The Wounded and Breast Cancer Care.