Race organisers have lost contact with four New Zealand men who are rowing across the Indian Ocean to raise money for a prostate cancer charity, but the wife of one man says the team is well-prepared and she's not worried.
Competing in the Indian Ocean Rowing Race, the Rowing for Prostate team of Tom Wigram, Peter Staples, Billy Gammon and Matt Hampel had been reporting daily for 71 days until Saturday.
Their last confirmed position was received on Saturday, when they were 553 nautical miles from Mauritius .
Organisers said the boat's GPS system has been faulty and the crew's satellite phone stopped working at the weekend.
Mr Wigram's wife Rebecca told NZPA she was "really, really not worried" about the team, who had trained hard for two years, including in incredibly bad weather, ahead of the race, and who were prepared for anything.
The men had an emergency beacon and personal locator beacon and would have set those off if they ran into any trouble, she said.
A spokesman for the race organisers, Alan Gwyer, said there was nothing to suggest the boat was suffering anything more than communication problems.
A race support boat was being sent out to the boat's last position, over two days' travel, Mr Gwyer said.
Weather maps on the race website showed southeasterly winds with waves between three and five metres high.
The inaugural charity race from Geraldton, West Australia, to Mauritius, off the coast of Africa, has already been won by a British crew.
Nick and Phil McCorry, 25 and 24, Matt Hellier, 20, and Ian Allen, 25, last Thursday won the 3132 nautical mile race, finishing in 68 days, 19 hours and 40 minutes.
NZPA