After nine months at sea a group of female adventurers have completed one of the toughest expeditions on the planet - rowing more than 9,200 miles across the Pacific Ocean.

The Coxless Crew set out on their journey from San Francisco in April, when they sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge and pointed Doris, their pink 29ft boat built in Christchurch, towards Australia.

There was jubilation as Laura Penhaul, Natalia Cohen, Emma Mitchell and Meg Dyos hugged each other before joining hands and taking their first unsteady steps onto solid ground for more than three months.

 

What a welcome! Amazing scenes as Coxless Crew complete epic 9 month journey across the Pacific @7NewsQueensland pic.twitter.com/U6bFDLD3Ud

— James Van Leeuwen (@jamesvanleeuwe1) January 25, 2016

Shortly before 1am on Monday, after 257 days of enduring storms, enormous waves, sea sickness and the odd attack of flying fish, the four women nosed Doris's faded bow into the Marlin Marina at Cairns to be greeted by their proud families and friends.

 

 

Bournemouth Echo:

 

Sitting down for a well-earned beer in front of scores of people who cheered them ashore, the women were all grins as they described their expedition and arrival as "an overwhelming experience".

But there were conflicting emotions as they said goodbye to Doris, whose cramped cabins and salty deck have been their home for three quarters of a year.

Their final few days on the waves were spent negotiating the Great Barrier Reef and dodging dive-bombing boobie birds, and with conditions conspiring against them and supplies dwindling fast they had to dig deep to finish the last few miles.

Writing on their blog on Sunday they said: "It has been an exhausting and emotional few days as we make our approach to land.

"The last 8,500 nautical miles don't matter anymore, it is all about these last 20. It's fair to say that with physical exhaustion, sleep deprivation and a lack of savoury food we are being tested to our limits. However this is where we draw on our spirit, row hard, row strong, row together."

Despite taking three months longer than planned the expedition has set two world records, the women becoming the first all-female team and the first team of four to row the Pacific

In a blog posted on Friday, Natalie wrote: "This is really happening…we are less than 100 miles from land. Emotions are beginning to run high and the food supplies are running very low.

"Our final push to make landfall before the parents leave but ensure we savour every last moment out here in the almighty Pacific too.

"As a team we want to breathe in the beauty of our 360 degree world, the colours of the ocean, the sounds of the wind and the waves, the movement of our small 29ft home, the utterly unique experience of conquering our Pacific and say, THANK YOU.

"Thank you Oceania, thank you Neptune, thank you Universe, thank you Doris and most importantly thank you to EVERYONE who has supported, followed and been part of our journey."

The row is raising money for two charities, Walking With The Wounded and Breast Cancer Care, and the team have been rowing in a 29ft four-person pink boat named Doris, which was built by Rossiters Yachts in Christchurch.

Bournemouth Echo:

Charlie Rossiter today told of his joy that their expedition had been a success.

He told the Daily Echo: "It is terrific - what a voyage. I don't think any of us thought the journey was going to take that long. It is a very long time to be at sea.

"We are very pleased that the boat made it successfully and we are full of admiration for what they have achieved."

Mr Rossiter said he hopes to boat and crew will return to Christchurch in the near future.

They also completed a lot of their early training in the area, ready for the boat to be continuously rowed by Natalia, Laura and Emma, with the fourth space being rowed in relay.

Charlie Rossiter, of Rossiter Rowing Boats, said: “We’re amazingly proud of what the team have achieved and that the boat we provided them served them well.

“We built it to order about three years ago. We’ve had several of our boats cross the Atlantic and Indian oceans, but this is the longest voyage one of them has made so far.”

Emma wrote on the expedition's blog: "It was mid December 2013 and three aspiring ocean rowers arrived at Rossiters boat yard in Christchurch to take their first oar strokes in their beautiful pink ocean rowing boat Doris.

"I had been a part of the Coxless Crew for almost four months and had seen Doris go from being a pink hull sitting on blocks in the shed to becoming a fully fledged ocean going boat with hatches on her cabins, a rowing setup on her deck and the start of her electrics box in the aft cabin.

"It was a breezy day but after assessing the conditions we decided that it was nothing we couldn’t cope with. In all the excitement of our first few strokes Laura got a little carried away taking photos and by the time she looked up we were very close to a very shiny and expensive looking boat as we tried to make it round the first corner.

"Fortunately we pushed off with our hands and got away without causing any damage. As we emerged from the narrow channel of the boat yard there was another 90 degree corner to navigate.

"It was at approximately this point that it occurred to us that we had no ballast on board. We also had no dagger board. We were effectively rowing a 29ft lilo out into Christchurch bay on a breezy Saturday.

"Needless to say we ended up wedged between a tree and a signpost as we rounded the corner. As we attempted to free ourselves a dragon boat came round the corner with its whole crew wearing Santa hats and as they waved and wished us merry Christmas we tried to nonchalantly look like we were deliberately taking a short break near the bank.

"Finally free, we continued out into the bay with only a couple of close encounters with the well known mud flats of Christchurch.

"We were enjoying ourselves so much that maybe we waited for slightly too long before deciding that it would probably be best to turn around and head back to more sheltered waters. When we went to turn the boat we just couldn’t do it.

"Despite rowing as hard as we could and even getting two of us on one set of oars we still couldn’t get Doris to move past 90 degrees as the wind blew us rapidly towards the breakwater.

"Not wanting to get swept out to sea it was time to put our backup plan into action.

"Our options were basically to call the Coastguards or to call a lovely guy called Mark who we had met the previous week at Christchurch Rowing Club.

"We decided that on balance it would be less embarrassing to call Mark than the Coastguards so LP gave him a call from the aft cabin.

"Once we reached the more sheltered part of the bay we thought we would be ok and so Mark threw us the rope and we started to row. However within about 30 seconds we were stuck in the mud and LP had to get out and try to push us off the bank. After getting pretty wet we decided to admit defeat and accept a tow all the way back to the boat yard. "

You can follow the team on Twitter at twitter.com/coxlesscrew