A Scots adventurer is already ahead of schedule in his bid to row across the Atlantic in under 30 days.

Mark Beaumont, 29, from Perthshire, is part of a team of six on the Sara G, which earlier this week left Morocco for the journey to St Charles, in Barbados, to break the record for the ocean crossing.

Yesterday Beaumont, part of the team captained by Matt Craughwell, used the social network Twitter to say the crew were "speeding along at an average of 4.17 knots" and were ahead of the existing world record's 24-hour target.

They will row in teams of three, in shifts of two hours on, two hours off, in a bid to break the record of 33 days.

The trip will cover 3000 miles, or nearly 5000km.

Beaumont, who returned in August from a 450-mile row across the Arctic, is known for his cycling, including breaking the record for cycling around the world in 2008.

He has also cycled from Alaska to southern Argentina.

Beaumont said that rowing the Atlantic had been a dream of his for four years.

l A team of adventurers has set off for the South Pole to mark the 100th anniversary of Captain Scott's arrival with a commemorative game of cricket. Former SAS officer Neil Laughton and three others left London on Monday night and aim to be at the Pole on January 17.