AS opening statements go Elaine Hopley’s is far from run of the mill. “Being in the middle of the Atlantic, just me and my boat, was absolutely amazing – you’re literally in the middle of nowhere with not a single other person around.”

It is, admits Hopley, almost impossible to describe to laypeople what her Atlantic crossing, which she completed last month, was really like. The bare facts show that the 45 year-old from Dunblane single-handedly rowed the world’s second largest ocean in 59 days 19 hours and 14 minutes.

She rowed over 3000 nautical miles from Spain to Antigua alone in her 22 foot specially designed rowing boat and set a new world record in the process, becoming the fastest female ever to row the Atlantic solo.

However, the statistics tell only a fraction of the story. Hopley had to battle the most treacherous of weather conditions, extreme fatigue and unimaginable physical, mental and emotional stress in order to reach the finish line.

“Every kind of condition that can get thrown at you out there, it happened to me,” she says. “It’s such a crazy, hostile environment – it’s very hard to describe it.

“The scale of everything is unbelievable – the size of the waves that hit you, the squalls of wind that get you, the lightning storms – everything is on such a huge scale.”

Hopley is no stranger to adventure. In the past, she has cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats in just seven days, completed solo bike tours of Australia, New Zealand and Chile and has competed in numerous 24 hour mountain bike races.

However, her ocean crossing was another kettle of fish entirely.

Hopley had had her eye on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge for several years but it wasn’t until this year that she was able to actually sign up for the race.

As a child, she was often out on the waters off the west coast of Scotland, which is where her love of the ocean developed and so that, coupled with her thirst for adventure, meant that this opportunity was a dream come true.

“I love adventure, I love racing and I love the ocean so to me, this was the perfect race,” she says. “I’d wanted to do it for so long and when I get something like this in my head, I have a really strong drive to accomplish it.”

To put into context quite how severe a test it was that Hopley undertook, more people have climbed Mount Everest than have rowed the Atlantic.

As she was rowing solo, every hour she spent resting was an hour that she wasn’t moving forward or even worse, was being taken entirely off-course by the strong winds.

So she could spend up to 18 or 19 hours each day on the oars with just a few hours sleep at a time.

As well as being physically exhausting, there were, admits Hopley, moments during her 59 days at sea that were utterly terrifying.

“There were loads of times when I was really scared,” she says. “At night, when you’re on your own and you’re dealing with big winds and big swells, it was petrifying. And unless it was a good moonlight night, it was pitch black – sometimes I couldn’t see beyond the back of the boat, I could only hear the rumble of water that was coming towards me.

“And I passed through a couple of tropical storms which were terrifying. The power of nature is fascinating and amazing but you’re so vulnerable out there and you’re having to deal with these elements alone.”

Hopley’s excitement at having successfully completed such a monumental challenge is almost palpable.

And despite the hairy moments, she admits that there were countless highlights.

“It was just so much fun, even on the tough days,” she says. “I was surfing on 60 foot waves and I’d hit 10 knots – which is really fast – so I just had such a brilliant time.

“Being in the middle of the Atlantic was absolutely amazing – it’s just you and your boat literally in the middle of nowhere.

“When I was right in the middle of the Atlantic, it was flat calm which was spectacular.

“And it felt incredible to finish – it was a dream come true to cross that finish line. I’m the first woman in pretty much a decade to do this so the amount of respect I’ve received has been fantastic.”

Almost as soon as Hopley set foot on dry land, she was planning her next adventure. While she is keeping her plans to herself for now, she is, she admits, one of those people who are never content and who are always looking for the next challenge.

“There’s loads of things that I still want to do,” she says. “I’m always looking for the next thing – I don’t think I’ll ever feel that I’m finished or that I’m satisfied.”