Dan and his mother Jan took part in the pioneering 1997 race, becoming the first mother and son pair to row an ocean.

Originally, Dan entered with an old school friend who subsequently had to drop out due to other committments. Naturally, he asked his mother to join him instead! Despite neither of them being rowers or sailors, she accepted and they went on to successfully row 3044 nautical miles from Tenerife to Barbados in their boat Carpe Diem. They were very much the 'Heath Robinson' team, setting off with a £30 camping stove, no satellite phone, just a hand pump for water, and only one set of foul weather gear between the two of them!

Their unsupported crossing took 100 days, 18 hours and 57 minutes - narrowly putting them into the exclusive 'Hundred Day Club'.

In rowing across the Atlantic, the pair achieved two Guinness World Records: they became the first mother and son team to row any ocean; and at 53 Janbecame the oldest person at the time to row any ocean, although since 2005 this record has been held by Pavel Rezvoy (66).

In April 2007, mother and son are united in adventure once again as they are the first mother and son to take part in the Polar Race.

Dan is a member of the Ocean Rowing Society, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a founding Trustee of The Carpe Diem Trust. He will be 32 at the time of the Carpe Diem Polar Challenge.

"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero"

www.danielbyles.com
www.carpediemtrust.com