Story highlights Four British women successfully complete trans-Pacific row

It took them nine months to go from San Francisco to Cairns, Australia

They are raising money for breast cancer and veterans charities

(CNN) They spent nine months on a boat, rowing two-hour shifts all day, seven days a week, without a toilet and with only an hour-and-a-half nap at a time.

Four British women completed their arduous journey across the Pacific Ocean on Monday after rowing about 8,500 miles from San Francisco to Cairns, Australia.

What a welcome! Amazing scenes as Coxless Crew complete epic 9 month journey across the Pacific @7NewsQueensland pic.twitter.com/U6bFDLD3Ud — James Van Leeuwen (@jamesvanleeuwe1) January 25, 2016

They had no support crew on the journey, and they only stopped twice (for one week at a time) in Hawaii and Samoa for supplies and repairs.

With their arrival, Laura Penhaul, Natalia Cohen, Emma Mitchell and Meg Dyos -- the final leg rower -- become the first four-person crew to row this trans-Pacific route, and the first team to do it in three stages, according to Walking With the Wounded , one of two British charities they are supporting. The team hopes to raise £250,000 ($356,000) for Walking With the Wounded and Breast Cancer Care

In one of their last blog posts, the members of the Coxless Crew team said they were focused only on the final 20 miles.