A ROYAL Marine veteran from Yate is currently halfway across the Atlantic ocean in a rowing boat to raise money for a charity that supports existing and retired servicemen and their families.
So far the team have raised over £21,000 of their £50,000 goal for the Royal Marines Charity to help injured comrades and brothers in need.
Jason Gardiner flew out to Gran Ccanaria before Christmas to board the boat named 'Danielle' to complete final preparations and training rows before the departing from Pasito Blanco on December 15.
Before they set sail the team faced a number of issues, notably losing half of their rowing squad in the weeks before the challenge when the Royal Marines wouldn’t release the serving members.
The team recruited Connor and Mitch, veterans from the Royal Marines and Merchant Navy and after a slightly delayed departure left spain to begin the 4,800km roa to Barbados.
Jason has an SMS messaging system and has been updating the Gazette from the Atlantic.
In his most recent message, received on New Years Eve, Jason said the team had been lucky with the weather so far and had daily companions of a pod of dolphins.
They were hoping to reach the 750mile mark on New years day which would see them complete around a quarter of their journey.
Dad-of-two Jason conducted a tour of Afghanistan during his service as a commando and represented the Navy and Combined services Boxing team.
The now-tattoo-artist has previously raised money for the RMA by boxing professionally and running in the Marathon des Sables, a 156 mile race over six days in the Sahara Desert
Jason said: "The team are struggling with the tough conditions of sleeping only a few hours at a time, followed by gruelling 12 hours of rowing daily, but to have such an awesome experience whilst raising money for a great cause is fantastic."
He added: "The morale on board is great, especially iven the team have only known each other a week.
"Happy new year to all Gazette readers, and we will give another update next week!."
To donate go to Donate at bit.ly/3rCzbo6
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