Fighting injury and failing power supplies in Arctic conditions, a Welsh man has spoken of his gruelling expedition rowing 12 hours a day to reach the world’s northernmost points.

At 56 years old, Cardiff-born Jeff Willis has broken five Guinness World Records in seven days rowing hundreds of miles with a team of international athletes.

Under the guidance of rowing legend Sir Steve Redgrave, the group have become the fastest, largest and oldest crew to cross the Arctic, reaching further north than any other crew to get to the island of Svalbard.

Starting from Tromso in Sweden, the team crossed 566 nautical miles in seven days and seven hours before the second leg of their journey to Siglufjörður in northern Iceland.

Jeff celebrating after reaching Svalbard

But with a broken energy supply, no desalinator and a bad back injury, the record-breaking trip was anything but easy.

Jeff - who decided to row after being approached when watching a rugby match - said: “Everything was against us but we smashed every record to bits.

“By the end of the second day we were all wondering how the hell we could do it but by the fourth day your body accepts you’re going through hell and you can’t turn back.”

Alternating between continuous hour and a half shifts rowing and resting, the team of five clocked up a marathon 129 hours rowing each in seven days.

However, for the father of three, the hardest element was trying to recover in the boat’s tiny cabin.

He said: “You have two men in an incredibly small cabin, it’s cold and wet and you get tossed around everywhere by the waves.

“You try desperately to sleep but you only get a maximum of 15 minutes per session.

“I just couldn’t keep the hot meals down. I lost about a stone and a half in 7 days.”

The team has broken five Guinness World Records

And after becoming injured on the second day, Jeff’s challenge became even greater to keep pace with his team members - including the world’s fastest ocean rower Fiann Paul.

The data communications worker said: “I picked up a really bad back injury on the second day.”

He added: “That’s the nature of it, you’re open to the elements.

“You can’t let your men down and you can’t send people out on their own.”

To add to the challenge, the team also had to deal with a broken desalinator and power cell within days of setting off, pushing the group to row faster to reach their goal before losing GPS navigation.

Relying only on solar panels for the remaining journey, Jeff said: “[The fuel cell] stopped working almost immediately. We had two batteries diminishing hour by hour so we had to go faster, “It was getting quite scary. At the end of the row we were desperately concerned.

“Our desalintor broke about 24 hours later so we survived on emergency and hand pumped rations.

“We were having to make sure we had 30 litres of water on the boat at any time.”

Alongside physical and technical difficulty, the team also faced extreme mental challenges.

Jeff, who beat athletes half his age to be chosen for the team, said: “In the first three days we saw one or two ships but after that there was no sign of human life, it was incredibly eery.

“It’s all varying shades of grey as the sun doesn’t set, the sea is grey, the clouds are grey, the sky is grey.

“Three in the morning looks the same as three in the afternoon, it’s one of the hardest things to cope with - you never know when it’s day or night.”

Jeff (second from left) with the team

The former rugby player and coach, born in Splott, added: “At one point the sea went from being completely calm to quiet thunderous. When you’re rowing you get the wind which scrapes off the surface water, it’s like frozen darts hitting you in the face.”

Alongside the pain however, highlights of the trip included the wildlife found in such an icy environment.

Jeff said: “At the beginning a killer whale and her baby came alongside us for a while. We were nervous about the proximity but in awe of its beauty.

“There was two large walruses who popped their head on the side of the boat and just stared at us.”

After reaching Longyearbyen, the crew will now embark on second leg of their journey rowing 1,200 miles to Siglufjörður in Iceland.

As well as raising money through their trip to build a school in the Himalayas, the expedition will research how the men react to the Arctic environment with the help of the University of Cambridge.

Jeff Willis

To complete their journey, they will be joined by two time Olympic gold medallist Alex Gregory.

Jeff, who has returned to England due to his injury, will continue to support the group through their journey through satellite.

He said: “Now I’m back it really wish I was there for the second leg. I’ll help as much as I can via satellite.

“When we reached land we were treated like heroes. We were treated like the British Lions of the rowing world.”

The team’s fundraising page to buy a Himalayan school can be found here: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/thepolarrow