oceans all his life.

Mr. Paul Johnson told of the three-day nightmare when his yacht was wrecked on reefs in shark-infested seas between Papua New Guinea and Australia.

Mr. Johnson lost everything when the boat went down. But his problems had only just begun as he, and a shipmate, had to ride a dinghy through rough seas for two days before finally landing on a sandbar where they were forced to stay until they were rescued a day later.

He lost his home and all his belongings including paintings which were to be a major part of an exhibition in Europe. He said: "It is like someone gobbling up your memory.'' Now friends in Bermuda have organised a fund-raising event to get him back onto his feet and onto the seas.

Well known on the Island for his design of the Bermuda Venus type yacht in the 1960s, Mr. Johnson left the Island five years ago on the 42-foot yacht Venus .

He spent much of his time in the South Pacific finding remote islands where he could continue to paint the variety of beautiful scenes he had seen on his trips. These paintings had been commissioned for major exhibitions in Paris and London. To help cover the expenses of his voyages, Mr. Johnson was going to sell the paintings.

In the middle of July he had set off from French Caledonia with a woman to help him crew the yacht.

He said: "It is not really a difficult area. We had stopped in New Guinea for a while and then the journey is about 180 miles to the Torres Strait. We set off early expecting to be there by noon the next day.'' Mr. Johnson believed they had set a sensible course and they were passing the Fly River, PNG's biggest river.

He said: "I was down below when all the kerosene lamps fell and smashed. I went above and we were just coming off a 15-foot comber, falling onto the rocks. While we were speeding across the reef we tried to put the dinghy together. We were almost underwater.

"The boat was sinking but there were sharks all around, probably attracted by the noise. We could not risk getting out of the yacht until the dinghy was ready.

"The hole was probably only small but we just could not get down to it. We came off one reef and tried to get some belongings and money together but we lost all that when we hit another reef.'' The pair climbed into the dinghy and sailed away, watching the Venus sink behind them. They then had to struggle through stormy seas for two days, constantly bailing out and resting only during lulls.

Mr. Johnson said: "At one point I thought we were heading for the Fly River, which is malaria infested but we finally found ourselves on a sandbar. "We could see an island some way off but decided to stay on the sandbar until the following day.'' But they were to be rescued before they set off. Mr. Johnson said: "We managed to attract the attention of three men in a tin dinghy. Then things really began to get silly because one of the men was the Australian quarantine officer and we had a lot of gin.'' Mr. Johnson was faced with a week of questioning from Customs Officers. He told them if they wanted to search his boat they would have to look 300 feet underwater. He was finally allowed to fly back to Bermuda pondering how strange it was to pass over seas, which had taken him years to cross in the opposite direction, in just hours.

In Bermuda amongst friends and sporting only a few cuts and bruises, he said: "I have lived on the sea for 55 years, there were only three years when I was on land. It is the first time I have ever experienced this. I went through one spell of five years where I was going through two hurricanes a year.

"It is an extraordinary feeling when everything you own is sinking before your eyes. It is awful but you have to look at it sensibly and realise that the only way to go is forward. There is no way back.'' He has theories about why he was off course and was wrecked on the reefs but he will never be certain.

His Bermudian friends have organised a cruise in an attempt to get Mr. Johnson a boat and back on the seas. In the meantime he is off to Nova Scotia to co-write a book and to concentrate on starting his paintings again.

MR. PAUL JOHNSON -- Endured a three-day nightmare.