Atlantic rowers have counselling

The pair were told by the counsellor that they were yin and yang

Two rookie rowers are set to cross the Atlantic after undergoing couples counselling to ensure they do not fall out with each other during the trip.

Stu Turnbull, from Wiltshire, and Ed Baylis, from Dorset, who are both 26, will spend 40 days and nights at sea in a 24ft (7m) plywood skiff.

They aim to break the world record for a two-man crossing and also raise more than £200,000 for Cancer Research UK.

The pair were due to set off from the Canary Islands on Sunday.

Mr Turnbull , who is originally from Broad Town near Wootton Bassett and now lives in Fulham, London, said: "The counsellor told us that we were yin and yang.

We're rugby players, not rowers. We're not even sailors Ed Baylis

"I'm the yin apparently, which I found out is the more feminine side - but we'll have to see. We have agreed, whatever happens though, on a no-punching policy."

Mr Baylis, from Wimborne, said: "Ours is a new, dynamic though untested friendship.

"We have different backgrounds and approaches so we will have to see whether we will harmonise to increase our efforts.

"We're rugby players, not rowers. We're not even sailors.

"We are just two average Joes with a dream - to row 3,000 miles non-stop and raise the best part of a quarter of a million pounds for research into cancer."

The pair were sailing from La Gomera in the Canary Islands on Sunday.

The hope to reach Antigua, in the Caribbean, on 15 January and shave three days off the current record.