Two Irish men are currently rowing the Atlantic as part of a team taking on one of the world's toughest marine challenges.

Mark Bolger and Amir Anwar Hameed are raising funds for the youth mental health charity Jigsaw in Ireland and MindUs in the Netherlands with their team 'Out Of The Blue'.

They are also collecting data during the row for Reef Support.

They set off last week and will be on the Atlantic until the third week in January.

They have rowed over 500nm and have less than 2000nm to Antigua which they hope to reach by January 20th.

Robin O'Mahoney is one of the navigators for the team. He said they talk to the others on a daily basis.

"We'd meet up every morning, we prepare a briefing for them every day based on the weather forecast, their bearing, cloud cover - all these different kind of metrics that they want," he said.

"We send it to them by satellite phone.

"When they get back they have a daily briefing every day around midday, and they normally call us around then just to chat about it and see what the strategy is for the race and also the safety measures that we have to put in place for the day ahead".

Team 'Out Of The Blue' rowing on the Atlantic. Image: GoFundMe

Mr O'Mahoney said the boat they are on is quite small.

"It's not like a normal rowing boat that you'd see but it is built for the high-seas for sure," he said.

"It's able to deal with anything that's thrown that at it.

"There's a cabin at the front and a cabin at the back, and it's roughly about 27 to 30 feet long.

"What they do is sleep for two hours [and] row for two hours, so they're kind of assigned two guys in the back, two guys in the front.

"The ability to move around the boat is quite restricted".

Team 'Out Of The Blue' take a break. Image: GoFundMe

Mr O'Mahoney said while there is one yacht that is part of the race safety crew, the boats are generally on their own.

"Realistically there's such a wide spread between the competitors that it could take them a couple of days to get to the boat.

"The boats are kind of reliant on commercial shipping, passing yachts, other mariners that are out at sea.

"So, it's quite daunting being out there for sure."

Mr O'Mahoney said people can make a donation though GoFundMe.

Reporting by: Teena Gates

Main image: Team 'Out Of The Blue' rowing on the Atlantic. Image: Instagram/outoftheblue_rowing