A yachtswoman is back on the water for one of the toughest rowing races on earth - as part of a gruelling training regime for her next challenge.

A yachtswoman is back on the water for one of the toughest rowing races on earth - as part of a gruelling training regime for her next challenge.

Earlier this month former Woodbridge School pupil Lia Ditton set out from the Canary Islands in a 23ft rowing boat bound for Antigua in the Atlantic Rowing Race.

She joined the competition at the last minute when a place suddenly opened up - seeing it as a perfect opportunity to train for the Barcelona World Race 2010, which she is participating in later this year.

Miss Ditton was 25-years-old when in 2005 she was the only solo female competitor to finish the Original Single Handed Transatlantic Race (OSTAR) - crossing from Plymouth to Newport in just 28 days.

She has completed a number of ocean crossings but this time round she is having to row with a complete stranger - and the gruelling physical effort is starting to take its toll.

Posting on her internet blog, Miss Ditton said: “Sunday morning I emerged from the cabin feeling very old. My knees ached, my elbows ached, my fingers were bruised and swollen. The problem with having no wind is that the rowing is like trying to haul a dead-weight.”

However, despite a tough week it is also proving to be perfect training for the Barcelona World Race, which starts on December 31 and is a two handed non-stop round the globe challenge.

Miss Ditton, whose mother Elizabeth Ditton is headteacher of Nacton Primary School, also attended Northgate Sixth Form in Ipswich and completed a Suffolk College Foundation art course before graduating from Chelsea College of Art in 2006.