AN Atlantic rower is finally reunited with her boat after almost eight weeks apart.

Marine police officer PC Dawn Wood got her hands on solar-powered boat True Blue, the vessel she used to row solo thousands of miles to Barbados.

Dawn, from Burnham, completed her 3,000-mile voyage to Barbados on the night of February 25 and eventually flew back on March 3, leaving the boat behind to be shipped home.

Two months later, they have finally been reunited.

Dawn said: “It was amazing to see her again and I could not wait to get on board.

“I set about looking though everything and checking all was in order. I loved picking up my chart that I had used during the crossing and seeing all the waypoint marks I had plotted.”

It had taken Dawn 53 days to cross the Atlantic.

She said: “I was welcomed ashore into the beautiful Port St Charles.

“They had a berth set aside for me which had been coordinated by my wonderful shore support Angus Collins from Rannoch Adventure.

“Angus guided me into my berth and ensured I was tied up correctly, leaving me to be able to take in the sheer scale of what I had just done.

“The port was kind enough to let me keep True Blue in her berth which allowed me to go on board each day whilst still in Barbados to prepare her for the journey home.

“I had to flush out the water maker with fresh water to stop it building up bacteria, clean out the lockers and generally disinfect the boat inside and out to prevent anything going mouldy and ensure all left-over food was taken off.

“True Blue was about to spend eight weeks in a container so had to be clean or I would have an epic task back in the UK!”

Her boat was later towed from Port St Charles down to the shipping port of Bridgetown, where she was craned out of the water and into a shipping container.

Dawn said: “From there, True Blue was loaded on to a ship bound for Felixstowe before eventually being brought by road to Burnham.”

She added: “I will be getting her back in the water soon just for some training rows and will be making sure all the 250 club members and sponsors get to come along at some point to have their photo with the boat.

“I have no plans to sell her at the moment, but I do hope to announce a couple of very short rows later in the year in Essex.”