They had never rowed a boat before. But a drunken bet saw university students and best friends James Adair and Ben Stenning, now both aged 32, agree to row a staggering 3,500 miles (5,632 km) across the Indian Ocean.

    Using their £15,000 (US$22,800) life savings, they bought an ocean rowing boat and took to the water. Incredibly, they became the first ever pair in history to row the stretch without a support boat in tow.

    However, their efforts did not come without danger — they were nearly killed several times, including when a 50-foot (15-meter) wave upended their boat and they had to spend five hours in shark-infested waters.

    Now, Adair and Stenning have become unlikely film stars in the U.S. after their 116-day trip was transformed into an amateur documentary — and broadcasted at a major New York film festival.

    The viewing of the film, titled “And Then We Swam,” caused a crowd of more than 100 to burst into laughter, gasp in horror and deem the pair “crazy” at New York Wild Film Festival in Manhattan in late January.

    Tickets to the documentary also sold out at Banff Mountain Film Festival at the National Geographic Museum in Washington D.C., where it caused a similar reaction among captivated viewers.

    And Adair and Stenning, joined by filmmaker Ben Finney, now plan to tour Europe with the International Ocean Film Tour. Last year, they saw their film aired for the first time in England.

    Speaking about the documentary’s success three-and-a-half years after their row from Australia to Mauritius in August 2011, Adair said he and Stenning felt “amazed.”

    “The success of the film and the feedback we have had from viewers is truly amazing, especially since our idea to row the Indian Ocean stemmed from a drunken university bet!” they said.

    Adair and Stenning, who captured their incredible journey with a hand-held video camera (the clips were later used by Finney in the film) made their bet to row the Indian Ocean in 2004.

    And despite their near-death experience, they are planning to row again. “We are planning another row, but at this point in time we are still at the unrealistic dreaming stage,” Adair said.

    (SD-Agencies)