ROWERS battling across the Atlantic have fixed their autohelm steering system and are still in seventh place.

The Corinthians – Brian Fletcher, Chris Walters, Tony Short and Elliot Dale – are racing 2,550 nautical miles from the Canary Islands to Barbados in the 2011 Talisker Challenge.

The team have been at sea for nearly five weeks and have overcome many challenges – not least the weather and equipment failure that saw their team reduced to one rower at a time while the other steered manually.

The winds, that had the team facing 40ft waves and other boats capsizing or sinking, has quietened so much the crew were becalmed for 36 hours.

They took advantage of the lull to go over the side of the boat to clean the bottom of all the accumulated debris.

The autohelm was back working and three days ago there were two rowers back on duty.

In his first blog entry Mr Fletcher writes to thank supporters: “We are incredibly grateful to our families, friends, supporters, and followers. Your support and messages are keeping us going, so please keep sending them.”

The Corinthians are about 880 nautical miles from the finish.

Mr Fletcher added: “We have had some tough times during the voyage, especially with the autohelm. The weather has also been challenging with consistent high winds and seas, but we are coping well. No one has missed their session on the oars despite some illness, salt sores, cuts and bruises, and general tiredness.”