Jo Blackshaw, Pippa Edwards, Felicity Ashley and Lebby Eyres will leave La Gomera for Antigua on 12 December
Christmas 2021 will be one to remember for four working mums who will find themselves in the middle of the ocean.
They are attempting to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean.
"The Mothership", as they are known, is made up of sisters Pippa Edwards and Felicity Ashley from Monmouthshire.
They are joined by crew mates Jo Blackshaw and Lebby Eyres, both of whom have rowed in the boat race for Oxford while at university.
It is a gruelling and dangerous crossing at the best of times, with the women having to overcome 30ft waves, extreme sleep deprivation, challenging weather conditions and at least 40 days alone at sea.
But together they hope to inspire their 11 children between them that anything is possible, regardless of gender.
"We hope that our children will be proud of this and will look on things like this as perfectly achievable," Ashley told BBC Sport Wales.
"That's the mindset we're all driven to give our children is go for it, we are not four elite athletes, we are four working mums."
Ashley says they do, however, feel guilty about leaving their families at Christmas.
"Mine are the trickiest because they're younger and need more physical care when I'm away, but in other ways they don't really understand what being away for two months is.
"As the children get older that emotional side gets more challenging, the guilt placed on the mums that they're going to be away."
The women, in their 40s and 50s, make up the second oldest female crew of four to attempt the race. They were inspired after watching Pippa's husband complete the challenge in 2019 - the same time when Ashley was recovering from a hip replacement.
"I initially thought he was absolutely bonkers and then by the time it came to watching him finish live on Facebook, it was such a spine tingling experience, I just thought how incredible that would be," Ashley said.
"My hip was stronger than ever and I thought there's no reason why I couldn't do it, and what a brilliant thing to do to prove to myself and anyone out there, that it doesn't matter what kind of challenges you have to overcome if you've got the right mindset, you can do anything."
Jessica Mullins and Joe Lewis are among the Welsh contingent attempting to row 3,000 miles unaided
The Mothership is not the only Welsh representation in the race this year, half of "In Deep Ship" crew also hail from Wales.
Joe Lewis from Aberystwyth and Jessica Mullins from Penarth will be lining up on the start with crewmates Jessica Goddard and Lauren Hunt.
Rowers will burn in excess of 5,000 calories per day, with the average rower losing eight kilograms during a crossing.
Edwards says one of the most difficult aspects is the unknown and facing obstacles they cannot practice or prepare for.
"There's also not knowing how our bodies are going to react to that level of physical and mental fatigue," she said.
"We are likely to be gone 40-45 plus days, whatever it might be and we'll be rowing two hours on two hours off 24 hours a day, and we hope again, being mums that our experience of newborn babies will stand us in good stead.
"Who knows how we're going to react to that sort of physical endeavour, but there's only one way we're going to find out!"
MONUMENTAL MRS CAMPBELL: Wales' first black head teacher celebrated with iconic statue
MOTHERS, MISSILES AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT: The story of Greenham told like never before
