But even at the very darkest point of her 4700km solo row across the Atlantic Ocean, one thing the Kellyville 46-year-old never felt was regret.

“Never,” she said. “Absolutely not.”

Lee arrived in Antigua on Tuesday as the first Australian woman to row solo across an ocean.

“I never, ever questioned the journey. I never thought why am I doing this or I wish I didn’t do this.

“What I did question was my mental state after day 46. It was quite fragile.

“Could I handle it? Could I last the distance? How will you feel if you put your hand up and quit?”

She was one of only five solo competitors to take part in the world’s toughest ocean race,

the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. Of that five, she was the first woman to cross the finish line.

“You can always ask for rescue but of course you’re disqualified,” Lee said.

“You’re a non-race finisher. You’ve got to live with that.”

Besides an almost inhuman resolve, the main thing that kept her going through numerous mechanical failures, toothaches, storms and a dangerous lack of toilet paper, was her meticulous, military-like schedule.

Her daily rowing began between 5am and 7am and lasted right through until 10.30pm.

Around 6pm she would break for a freshwater wash before dinner; dinner (some combination of dehydrated food, protein bars and “spoonfuls of Nutella,”) was at 8pm sharp.

“Then I was tucked up and in bed between 10.30pm and 11pm,” Lee said.

“I generally just rowed all day and then slept in a chunk in the night.

“That was the routine that developed really, really early on and it just stuck the whole way through.”

Breaking the monotony of her long days at sea, Lee was occasionally visited by what she calls her “dolphin army.”

“There was a day where they just came through in the morning and no matter what direction I looked I was surrounded by dolphins in twos and threes,” she said.

“It was amazing. And then I had the whale army as well.

“Then this one day there was a big rolling sea and I look at the waves coming at me, and two waves behind me, it was the whale army. Their shadows coming through the waves was just insane and then before I knew it they were sharing the wave that I was on.

“That went for about two hours. They just kept coming through and it really created a fantastic distraction for me.”

However despite her wildlife visits and how wholly she threw herself into her routine, Lee’s lack of human contact eventually caught up with her.

“I really didn’t expect how much I’d miss just basic human contact and kindness,” she said.

“They were the things that I underestimated hugely.

“I honestly thought that would be the least of my concerns and it turned out to be one of the biggest.”

As for what’s next, Lee said she’s just looking forward to getting home.

“It was an honour, a pleasure and a privilege — but I have to say, it is such a relief that it’s over,” she said.

“I arrive back in Australia on the 26th and I absolutely cannot wait to get home.”

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