of the Decision was glad to be on land yesterday, but shocked at the relief their arrival brought to St. George's.

Friends and relatives had sounded the alarm because the 25-foot sloop left New York on November 9 but had yet to reach the Island on Sunday.

The yacht was the subject of an intense communications search by the US Coast Guard and Harbour Radio.

Mr. Smith, 43, the son of Bermudian Mrs. Mildred Grace Smith of St. David's, said he and Mr. Charles King were tossed by numerous storms and the tail end of Hurricane Gordon. But they left word in the States that nobody should worry unless they had not reached Bermuda by December 1.

"Because it is a small boat, I knew the passage would be slow,'' Mr. Smith told The Royal Gazette . "I did expect to have some weather.

"I was a little surprised when we came in this morning through the Town Cut and the pilot boat was taking video of us coming in,'' he said. And when they reached land, reporters were waiting with television cameras.

"This whole thing was a little bit premature.'' Nevertheless, there was good reason to be worried about the Decision and her crew.

"We did go through a hurricane and had rough weather all the way down,'' said Mr. Smith, a retired contractor from New York State. "It was astounding. At times the boat was immersed completely.

"I would say it was the ultimate in conditions for the North Atlantic. I don't know where conditions would be worse, other than Cape Horn.'' The pair set out on November 9 "and by that evening we were in a full gale,'' he said. "Some of the gales themselves were of hurricane force.'' They soon lost their electronics and were left with no radar, radio, or lights.

Later, "we took three knockdowns during the hurricane and sustained no substantial damage whatsoever.'' While "my crewmate had a few moments of apprehension, I was never afraid to that extent,'' Mr. Smith said. "The conditions were so severe that I didn't have time to be afraid and worried.

"You had to handle the boat properly.'' Mr. Smith gave much of the credit to his "superb'' wooden Folk boat. Built in Sweden in 1950, Mr. Smith spent three years rebuilding it.

There was no emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) aboard the Decision . Asked if he planned to install one, Mr. Smith said: "In my estimation, if something really does go wrong and we're lost, all it's going to do is tell somebody where we drowned.''