EXPLORER Dom Mee has travelled to Ireland to be reunited with the boat he had to abandon in the North Atlantic after being battered by the worst hurricane season on record.

Dom, 35, originally from Upton, Chester, was rescued by the Canadian coastguard last September after clinging to his tiny vessel, Little Murka, for 30 hours in 60ft waves.

Dom, who had hoped to be the first person to cross the Atlantic in a kite-powered boat, thought he would never see his craft again until the Irish coastguard reported the boat washed up on rocks after a year afloat.

Dom this week flew out to Ireland to rescue his boat accompanied by a BBC TV crew who are filming his exploits.

A former Royal Marine and international yachtsman, Dom is no stranger to danger but even he had feared he might have met his match as he struggled in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

He told The Chronicle: 'Crossing the Grand Banks took three weeks and I wanted to do it in three days. Then I lost my sea anchor through a scenario of a lot of things happening at once. When I lost my sea anchor it was a fight to stay alive. I would not want to go through that again. Technically, I shouldn't be here.' Fortunately, Dom's emergency beacon alerted the authorities to his plight but there was little sense of comfort even when he could see a plane overhead because there was nothing it could do for him.

He capsized about 40 times, breathing was difficult in 95mph winds and there was a danger he and his vessel would get sucked into the 60ft high waves and dropped from the top like a stone, before the water crashed on top of him. His only hope was to focus on survival and wait for the storm to subside.

Finally, he was picked up by a coastguard vessel in a small window of opportunity before the next weather system took hold.