A COUPLE who have spent three years living in America decided to return home by sailing over 4,000 miles back to Pwllheli.

Nerys Kimberley, 50, from Rhiw, moved to San Diego in California in 2013 after her husband Rob, 49, received an overseas post with the Royal Navy.

The couple, who have both always loved to sail, came up with the idea to return home across the Atlantic after purchasing a Frers yacht, named Ghost Rider in October 2015.

Nerys said: “We spent three fantastic years in San Diego after Rob was posted there and while we were there we thought we’d look into buying a boat as it’s a lot cheaper than buying one over there than back home.

“Our journey began when we picked up our boat from Sackets Harbour in New York and we once we left there we sailed through Ontario Lake, up the St Lawrence River and passed through Montreal and Quebec.

“We then started our 18 day journey back to Pwllheli from Halifax along with two friends, Ken Fitzpatrick and Peter Lomax.”

Nerys described how they faced challenging conditions throughout their 4,150 mile journey, including some extremely stormy weather.

“When we were in Halifax we were hit by a hell of a storm and the sea was extremely high.

“The weather conditions were difficult at times, for two days we had a lot of fog so we couldn’t see anything which proved to be very challenging.

At one point there was no wind so we had to use the motor.

“The worst bit of the journey was the last couple of days near Ireland when we were hit by gale force winds.

“We also didn’t have an auto pilot so all four of us shared the steering, we were on watch every three hours.

“For 17 days we didn’t see any land, but it was great when we got to go round Ynys Enlli and along the Peninsula, passing Aberdaron where I am originally from.

“We lived on Pot Noodles during the night and tuna wraps in the day – we don’t want to see either again for a while!"

Read the full story in this week’s Arfon/Dwyfor edition of the Cambrian News