'We wanted to do this for personal achievement and to show two cultures can work together'
Just before they entered the glow of the lights on the jetty, which marked the end of their epic row across the Atlantic Ocean, Christian Havrehed and Sun Haibin stopped - to cover their nakedness.
During their isolated 56-day journey, the pair crewing the Hong Kong-based boat Yantu had found it more comfortable to row without shorts.
But plans to freshen up before the finish were jettisoned when they were forced to race to fend off a late, unsuccessful, challenge for eighth place in the Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Challenge.
However, on Monday, Sun, a 27-year-old Beijing University student, became the first Asian to row across an ocean and Havrehed, a 31-year-old management consultant, became the first Hong Kong resident and first Dane to row the Atlantic.
Speaking yesterday by telephone from Barbados, where the race finished, Havrehed said he and Sun had seen only each other and the creatures of the sea - whales, birds and flying fish - for weeks on end.
