AFTER 51 days of uninterrupted rowing at sea, the intrepid SeaGals made it back to Tower Bridge yesterday to receive the cheers of the waiting crowd.

The intrepid foursome sailed into the Guinness World Records as the first all-women crew to row unaided around the coast of Britain.

Skippered by Bristolian adventurer Belinda Kirk, the team was met with a celebratory arch of water created by the London Fire Brigade's Thames fire boat, while scores of well-wishers gathered on the quayside.

The women finally made it back down the Thames on yesterday's high tide, after suffering a final 24-hour delay, when strong winds forced them to spend one more night in the North Sea.

After reaching the climax of their epic challenge, the SeaGals left behind Go Commando – the 24ft boat that had been their home for the last 51 days – and joined the celebrations at Royal Navy training base HMS President, where the crew were reunited with friends and family.

"It was the most amazing experience," Belinda says, looking back down at the faithful little rowing boat.

"I feel somehow more alive for having done this."

The girls rowed in pairs, with two rowing and two sleeping in regular shifts.

"It has been a long time, and we've been frustrated by having the wind against us all the way. But I wouldn't have missed every moment," Belinda adds.

The girls had emailed ahead to make sure the welcome party had their favourite food waiting for them. They asked for pizza, potato salad, honey-roasted cashews, crisps, sandwiches, vegetable crudités, fruit salad and cheesecake.

After 51 days at sea – it was a much-needed feast. The girls had only taken 40 days' worth of food, so supplies were carefully rationed throughout the final fortnight.

"We were all starving," Belinda admitted.

She also reveals that in the final 48 hours water was running short.

"We had a problem in the last few days with our onboard batteries and solar panels, which prevented us from using our desalinisation equipment to make fresh water. So everything was rationed, and by the end we were drinking the ballast water."

There was much-needed medical attention also waiting for Angela Madsen, the 50-year-old Californian who broke her index finger while firing an emergency flare to prevent a ship running into the boat off the coast of Scarborough.

The former US Marine – who uses a wheelchair on dry land after suffering a spinal injury in a basketball match during her time with the military – dismissed the broken finger as "a bit of an inconvenience" which didn't stop her rowing.

Belinda and Angela were also joined onboard by Laura Thomasson, a 23-year-old Royal Navy nurse from Dover and Beverley Ashton, a 29-year-old IT support manager – and keen rower – from Wantage in Oxfordshire.

As a professional expedition leader and adventure film-maker, Belinda is used to finding herself in some risky situations. Previously the 35-year-old from Montpelier has faced everything from walking across China's "Desert of Death" to leading a team of 100 intrepid types on a trek across the Amazon jungle.

But Belinda says this challenge has been her most testing to date.

"The seas around Britain are known to be some of the most dangerous in the world, and they didn't disappoint," she laughed.

The race began at Tower Bridge on June 1, with the team taking on an all-male crew, The Misfits. Everyone – including Belinda herself – predicted that the men's team, which included ex-special forces "action men", would storm ahead.

But after a couple of weeks the men found themselves 80 miles behind the women's team, and decided to swallow the anchor at Land's End.

With the men out of the race, the SeaGals knew they only had to complete the clockwise circumnavigation of Britain to get their hands on the £15,000 cash prize, which had been put up by Virgin boss Richard Branson.

But simply completing the journey was always going to be an enormous challenge.

"We had a lot of hurdles to overcome – including strong winds and rough seas. But the biggest danger came from collisions as we crossed the country's busiest shipping lanes," Belinda said.

The girls took all possible precautions – including fitting the Go Commando boat with radar so they could track where the big ships were, and a system called "Sea Me", which makes the tiny boat look much bigger on the ships' radar screens.

But even these precautions didn't prevent two major near-misses. As well as the Scarborough incident, the girls also found themselves in danger while crossing the Bristol Channel, where they nearly collided with a giant car transporter coming out of Avonmouth.

Belinda's father, Maurice Kirk, who was at Tower Bridge to welcome her ashore, said: "I was never worried. She's a sensible girl. She knows what she is doing."