Rowing-British female rowers start second attempt at Pacific Ocean crossing

Two British women resume their audacious bid to row 8,000 miles non-stop across the Pacific Ocean on Monday, after a dramatic mid-sea rescue and an international scramble to repair their damaged vessel.

Miriam Payne, 25, and Jess Rowe, 28, are hoping to be the first female duo to row across the Pacific unsupported but were forced to abort their initial attempt when the rudder of their nine-metre boat Velocity snapped 350 miles off Peru's coast last month, leaving them drifting in heavy swells.

They are refusing to let their dream sink.

"We're trying to view it as a positive and that it was the best sea trial we could possibly have had," Payne told Reuters from Lima. "It was a high stress situation, knowing the rudder was broken but I think we worked really well together."

The pair, whose challenge is aptly named "Seas The Day", made contact with Peruvian round-the-world sailor and friend Alec Hughes, who spent two days sailing to rescue them and a week towing them back to port for repairs.

"We were pretty much outside of international waters. So the rules are we can get rescued, but the boat doesn't. Without Alec we would have had to abandon the boat at sea which would have been absolutely heartbreaking," Payne said.

Their rescue triggered a remarkable international effort, with Norfolk-based Southgates Boat Yard crafting replacement rudders that arrived in Lima just before the May 8 deadline to avoid the Pacific cyclone season.

"The guys at the boatyard have literally been working through the night to get these new rudders made," Rowe said.

The Lima to Australia route will benefit from trade winds and currents and will take around six months, with the duo rowing simultaneously or on alternate two-hour night shifts.

With no