A couple who spent 40 years working around the world have come home to Sussex after sailing 15,000 miles in a DIY yacht.

Peter and Elizabet Hawker battled raging seas and storms trusting their lives to the Pelikan, the boat they built on their Australian farm.

The return voyage took two years and nearly ended in disaster.

Just four days away from Falmouth, a freak midnight storm damaged the boat and the couple battled in darkness against lashing rain to stop the 52ft mast collapsing.

Peter, a former pupil of Brighton and Hove Grammar School, said: "I had no choice but to go up and see what was wrong and to get the sails down. The mast had to be secured or it could have punched a hole in the hull and we could have sunk."

He made an emergency call to coastguards who alerted a ship on its way to Trinidad.

The crew went to the rescue and threw a light buoy holding five cans of diesel into the water.

Peter and Elizabet, 54, pulled it aboard and filled the tanks with enough fuel to reach safety.

The drama was one of dozens of memories which they brought ashore when they arrived in Shoreham. Two years earlier they had set sail from Australia.

Peter said: "One of the highlights was following a school of whales. They were about 15m long and kept jumping right out of the water."

On arrival in Sussex, they shared tales of their adventures with Peter's 87-year-old mother, who lives in Hove.

For Peter, who grew up in Brighton and Hove, it was a homecoming after 28 years of living in Australia with Swedish wife Elizabet and their daughters Amanda and Nicola.

He met Elizabet in Brighton and after they married moved to live with her in Sweden.

His job as a computer programmer took them to Zambia and Angola before they returned to Burgess Hill where their daughters were born.

In 1973, the family emigrated to Australia where Peter become a senior manager in the civil service.

The couple had dreamed of building their own boat and sailing around the world since they were in their 40s.

They started work on the 43ft Pelikan five years ago, working on her at evenings and weekends on their farm near the capital Canberra.

After 18 months, Peter, then 52, retired early and used his golden handshake to work full-time on the boat, made of wood covered with fibreglass.

Peter said: "She cost about £90,000 to build and equip but that does not include the time and labour.

"Today, an identical boat would cost around £300,000 if you bought it ready built."

After spending four weeks in England they sailed to Sweden to visit Elizabet's family, arriving back in Shoreham two weeks ago.

Almost immediately they got a call from their eldest daughter Amanda to say she was about to give birth to their first grandchild.

Elizabet, 54, flew home to be with her for the birth of Dylan.

She is expected to rejoin Peter in five weeks time onboard the Pelikan at Brighton Marina.

They will spend the winter in England before heading off on their travels again, this time to the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean.

Peter, 57, said: "We expect to spend another three years living onboard.

"We will probably come back to England to sell her before we return to Australia as we will get a better price over here."