A couple’s two-year round-the-world sailing voyage ended in disaster in the Caribbean when their £150,000 yacht sank after hitting what is believed to have been a whale.

Paul and Helen Glavin, from Weymouth, Dorset, were eight months into their dream circumnavigation, sailing between the British Virgin Islands and St Kitts, when at about 2.00am on April 2, their Sovereign 470 yacht, Helen Mary Gee, struck the whale.

The impact caused a breach in the hull and the yacht started to take on water. Mrs Glavin broke a rib when she was flung against the wheel. Despite the Glavins best efforts with bilge pumps, by 6am the yacht began sinking.

The couple took to their liferaft and were rescued some six hours after the collision. They are now back in the UK.