TACOMA, Wash. - After a little more than two months, four Tacoma-area men rowed their way to victory across the Atlantic Ocean, winning the first rowing race across the North Atlantic.

Jordan Hanssen, Dylon LeValley, Greg Spooner, and Brad Vickers - also known as the Ocean Adventure Racing (OAR) Northwest team - departed New York on June 10 for Falmouth, England, a dance of 3,100 nautical miles or 3,567 statue miles. Sixty-nine days later, the team arrived in the U.K., setting new records and raising $300,000 for the American Lung Association.

Courtesy: OAR Northwest

The Ocean Adventure Racing (OAR) Northwest team

In their 29 ft.-by-6 ft. boat the "James Robert Hanssen," named after Hanssen's father who died of asthma, the rowers battled 30-ft. high waves, icebergs, container ships, sleep deprivation and exhaustion. The rowers, all in their 20s, were the only Americans to enter to competition and beat out 15 other international teams.

"We spent a lot of time in preparation," said Hanssen, team captain, told NorthWest Cable News.  "That's one thing that we could give to this project, a lot of time, being as young as we are." 

All four rowers were crew mates together at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.  Hanssen came up with the idea to enter the competition and assembled the team.

"I saw a poster on the boathouse wall at the Lake Washington Rowing Club one day and it looked like a fantastic idea," said Hanssen.  "So I asked these guys, and they were a lot easier to convince than you'd think."

"I got a call from this guy and he said, 'Do you want to row across the ocean?' and I said 'You can do that?' said Vickers.

The team set a number of records, including the first team to row from the mainland U.S. to mainland U.K., the first Americans to row from West to East of the North Atlantic Ocean, and the longest trip.

Courtesy: OAR Northwest

The OAR Northwest Team on the water.

"You're completely subjected to the weather when you're out there," said Vickers. "You can try and row, try to get ahead, but you can only go about two or three knots. Weather conditions are huge for the crossing."