TWO single-handed sailors who hail from Saundersfoot and had never previously met, recently joined forces to combat a 4,000 mile journey back to Wales from Antiqua.

After David Francis, of Sandyhill Road, and his crew sailed into the Caribbean, David started to make plans for his first solo Atlantic crossing over 4,000 miles back to Wales.

It wasn't long in mid-May before David met another single-hander in Antiqua preparing to sail solo across the Atlantic, John Blair.

They soon found out they were both from, and bound for, Saundersfoot!

John who runs a mackerel fishing boat from Tenby harbour has crossed the Atlantic many times, but this was to be his first solo attempt.

As it turns out, the pair, who had never met before, provided invaluable support to each other on the long journey on their yachts, which saw encounters with dolphins, close shaves with whales and some pretty frightening weather systems on the home leg.

Along the journey, John assisted with regular weather forecasts on the radio after David's weather system failed on his boat, Red Five, while David provided assistance when John's self-steering failed on his boat, Chelone, on the last leg of the journey from the Azores.

They both arrived safely into Neyland on June 22, with David just a few hours ahead of John Blair, much to the relief of delighted family and friends.

Explaining his more tardy arrival, John, the more experienced sailor, claimed: "I was impeded by the steering fault!", while David remarked: "Does anybody want to buy a boat?!"

Both John and David are former pupils of Greenhill School in Tenby and both live live in Saundersfoot, probably as the crow flies less than a 100-metres away from each other!