A lone sailor plucked from the Atlantic almost a year ago was yesterday reunited with the boat he was forced to leave behind.
Marine explorer Dom Mee (35) rushed from his home in Britain to Co Donegal when told his 14ft kite-propelled vessel, dubbed the kite boat, was washed up off Malin Head.
Mee spoke last night about "the boat I owe my life to".
He said he had never expected to see the kite boat again after he was rescued last year. "It's incredible. I still can't believe it. She has taken a bit of battering and is a bit of a sad sight, all covered in barnacles.
"But I'll get her afloat again. I owe my life to that boat. She is an old friend."
A spokesman at Malin Head Coast Guard station, from where the message that the boat had been discovered was flashed to Mee, said: "He is so excited.
"He can't believe it. He thought the vessel was gone forever."
Mee was attempting the first ever kite boat sail across the north Atlantic from St John's, Canada, to Exmouth, Devon, in August and September last year when he endured hurricanes Irene, Katrina, Maria, Ophelia and finally Rita.
The kite boat lost its sea anchor on September 25th, lashed by 70km/h winds in seas up to 18m high.
A series of capsizes followed, and Mee's cabin filled with water. He spent five hours clinging to the upturned hull before a wave righted the boat.
For a further 24 hours he managed to keep the boat afloat, before he was rescued by the Canadian coast guard.
He figured he would not see the boat again - until fishermen at Malin Head spotted it in the sea and pulled it to land at 1.30pm on Monday.
Mee's experience last year in mid-Atlantic has not put him off more adventures. "I'm already preparing for another transatlantic crossing in January - from the Canaries to Barbados. I'm in a squad of four aiming to break the rowing record for the crossing."