The men have been beset by storms and gigantic icebergs

Captain Mark Stubbs, from Dorset, and his crew set off 22 days ago and hope to hit the 1,000-mile mark on Friday.

Earlier this week they were forced to row 45 miles out of their way to avoid heavy storms in their boat Pink Lady.

The oarsmen are aiming to smash the 55-day record for the 2,100 mile crossing from west to east, set in 1896.

The boys are calling this their Victor Meldrew storm - they don't believe it Crew log

The crew hope to raise �50,000 for the British Heart Foundation.

They are Mr Stubbs, 40, a firefighter from Poole, ex-SAS diver Peter Bray, 48, from Bridgend, south Wales, Jonathan Gornall, 48, a journalist from London, and digital mapping specialist John Wills, 33, from Farnham in Surrey.

They are aiming to row in pairs for two hours at a time 24-hours a day until they arrive in Falmouth, Cornwall, in their bright pink 25ft by 6ft boat.

The crew's daily log for Thursday said: "The boys are calling this their Victor Meldrew storm - they don't believe it.

The translatlantic team may be the first to reach the British mainland

"For this time of the year they could have expected more favourable conditions helping them towards home.

"To date Pink lady has only had one day where wind or current gave some advantage."

Since setting off from St John's in Newfoundland on 30 June, they have braved raging storms and icebergs as big as mountains.

There have been 29 attempts to row the Atlantic from west to east, during which six men have died.

Only 10 attempts have been successful and none has yet reached the British mainland.

The current east-west Atlantic rowing record is held by an 11-man French crew, which in 1992 rowed from the Canary Islands to Martinique in the West Indies in 35 days and 8 hours.