Three American sailors have described the dramatic rescue effort that saved them after their yacht broke down in mountainous seas off the coast of Bermuda.

The crew of the arrived safely back in St George?s at 3 a.m. yesterday after help reached them in the form of the crew of the cargo ship.

Greg Maret, the owner of the stricken vessel, was remarkably upbeat about what he and his friends Bob and Paula Walker they been through, telling yesterday that they had experienced: ?A nice little pleasure cruise.?

The trio, had set sail from Mystic in their home state of Connecticut at 11 p.m. last Friday, November 18 planning a three or four day trip that would take them to Bermuda.

The first few days were calm, which meant that the craft had to motor and therefore burned a lot of fuel, explained Mr. Maret.

The real trouble began on Tuesday when the high winds started up and the crew was forced to shut down the engine to conserve fuel while tacking to within 170 nautical miles north of Bermuda.

The weather worsened during the course of Tuesday, and the 45-foot sailboat took a hammering in the 50-knot winds and 30-foot waves, which led it to lose its power, rudder and sail while being blown to the east.

The crew ? Mr. Maret, 48, plus the yacht?s skipper Mr. Walker, 55, and his wife Paula, 36 ? sent out an SOS signal via satellite phone to friends at home.

They then made the decision to heave-to ? stopping the boat from going forward by lowering the sails, and then battening down the hatches ? and went below deck to wait for help to arrive.

The US Coastguard alerted the car carrier which attempted on Wednesday morning to get them off the stranded craft which was by now 204 nautical miles north east of Bermuda.

However, the hopes that the crew of might be able to abandon ship were dashed by the continuing strong winds and heavy waves which meant it was too dangerous to attempt this.

?There were big mountains of seas and it was dangerous to transfer people from our boat to the , so we requested fuel from them and they passed along 60 gallons of it in cans tied onto life rings,? explained Mr. Walker.

?We retrieved them from the ocean and then started motoring back into pretty high seas. We had a hard time getting the mainsail back up and it was two days of beating against the sea to get to Bermuda.?

Mr. Maret, who is a nuclear and electrical engineer and knows Mr. Walker through being in the same line of work, said: ?We had a nice little pleasure cruise although the refuelling was pretty hairy!?.

He explained that the crew were never in fear for their lives as contact had already been made with the Coast Guard before the decision was taken to heave-to. They therefore went to sleep below knowing that help was on its way.

?We were very secure down below and in fact I got some of my best sleep when the winds were howling as the is a stable and heavy boat,? he said. ?We had made communications contact and we had a life raft, so there were other options and Bob is a very level-headed skipper.

?Within three or four hours the crew of the Patriot were there, and they were wonderful.?

The trio plan to eventually continue their trip by heading for Tortola in the British Virgin Islands but will first spend at least a few more days in Bermuda getting the headsail and mainsail of their craft fixed.