Dougal Robertson

It was before dawn this morning when the Tokaburu birthed at the quayside in the Panamanian port of Balboa.

The Robertson family were finally back to safety after one of the most harrowing ordeals in the annals of the sea.

The family were picked up from this dinghy by the Tokaburu on Saturday.

Incredibly, they survived for five weeks on water they'd recovered, supplemented by turtles and fish.

From being a farmer's son who had very little knowledge about boats and sailing, I was thrust into the deep end and trying to steer this boat in extremely severe weather under sail, which is more difficult than motor, in an open cockpit.

And it was extremely rough.

It was a rough initiation that anybody could get, you know.

Well, we'd been holed up in Falmouth for a good two months waiting for the wind to change.

Now the wind had changed, but it was just a gale, you know.

And so, therefore, it was quite rough.

Because Dougal is a seasoned sailor, sea captain.

He'd sailed the boat up in rough weather up from Malta.

He had experience of that.

I mean...

I saw it through different eyes.

I was scared to death of those seas, of those waves, you know.

But Badoogle wasn't.

But he should have thought about his crew, you know, because we were completely unskilled and with no experience.

And so, therefore, the watch structure and everything quickly fell apart, you know.

Everybody got very seasick and the weather was very rough.