Two women who had been stranded off the Kent coast for several days while competing in a round Britain rowing race have decided to quit the race after being towed into Ramsgate by lifeboat.

Beautician Charlene Ayres, 23, from Wales, and adventurer Sally Kettle, 36, from Kingston on Thames, were among six teams who set off from Tower Bridge in London on Saturday in the hope of beating the record for rowing around Great Britain, which currently stands at 26 days, 21 hours and 14 minutes.

The teams are rowing non-stop and the crews have to live on the food and water they carry on their boats.

There is a £15,000 prize for the first boat home, £6,000 for the second and £4,000 for the third, but there is a £100,000 bonus if the first boat beats the record.

The event is raising funds for two charities, Walking With The Wounded and Leukaemia Research.

But Charlene and Sally, whose team name was the Coast Girls, had a near miss when a strongeasterly wind blew their boat perilously close to the shore between Whitstable and Herne Bay. And then Charlene suffered sea sickness, so they had to anchor off Thanet.

The race organisers reported that the women had been battling against head winds in the Thames estuary for the past five days, only 100 miles from the start of this 2,000-mile race.

After finally making it round the corner into the Dover Strait, they dropped two anchors, four miles north of Ramsgate. But as night fell and the easterly wind picked up, the anchors dragged on the sandy sea bottom.

Weakened by three days of sea sickness, Charlene found it difficult to row and they faced being blown onto the shore again.

Sally kept in contact with the Coastguard and decided they needed a tow from the RNLI lifeboat into the safety of Ramsgate harbour. Charlene has been taken to hospital for routine check ups.

In a tearful call to Race Director Chris Usborne, Sally, who has rowed the Atlantic twice, said: “It was all very controlled. We did everything we could but in the end there was nothing we could do but call the Coastguard for assistance. It’s with great sadness that we have been forced to withdraw from the race."

They had also raising money for the fire-fighters' charity because five years ago Charlene's mum had to be rescued from the bedroom of her blazing home near Cardiff.

The other teams are Team Pure Gym GB Challenge, Claire Shouksmith, Paul Pendleton, Steve Paterson and Ingrid Kvale; Team Hallin, consisting of ex-Royal Navy Commander David Hosking, Neil Ward, Julian Bellido and Stuart Chamberlayne; The Islanders, Josh Taylor, Alan Morgan, James Plumley and Gavin Sheehan; Oarsome Adventures, Heather Rees-Gaunt, Karl Steans, Sam Clemmens, Mikey Buckley, Ian Kavanagh and Beatrix Parry; and Savoir Faire, Jason McKinlay and Josh Tarr.

Only two teams remain in the race, The Islanders - who are just off the record time as they pass between Ireland and Wales - and Savior Faire, who are near the Bristol Channel.

Pure Gym was towed into Salcombe by lifeboat and Team Hallin had to be helped by a motor boat after suffering steering problems off Lands End. Oarsome Adventures also retired off the south west coast.

Claire Shouksmith, Ingrid Kvale and Steve Paterson from Pure Gym have been joined by Stuart Chamberlayne from Team Hallin and have rejoined the race, although they no longer qualify for a prize. They said they all wanted to continue the dream to row 2,000 miles around Britain’s mainland.

The first five teams who rowed through the English Channel were advised by the race director to keep at least mile away from Dover Harbour as they rowed by the port on Sunday.

In her blog Claire Shouksmith said nothing much happened on Sunday, “except the busiest shipping lane in the world”. She said the conditions were “fantastic”.