An Irishman and a French woman have thanked the "absolute heroes" from Sydney's waterway police who rescued the pair after five days stranded off the NSW coast in waves the "size of buildings".
The couple encountered extraordinary waves, winds they couldn't stand in and "whiteness everywhere" as they awaited rescue on their broken yacht off Sydney.
Nick Dwyer, 55, and Barbara Heftman, 44, arrived safely in Balmain on Wednesday night aboard a NSW Police rescue vessel with the crew who travelled more than 200 nautical miles (400km) in treacherous seas to save them.
"We owe them our lives," Mr Dwyer said as he stepped onto dry land.
The experienced sailors had been sailing from New Zealand to Australia in a 12-metre vessel as part of a 10-year circumnavigation of the globe when the yacht's rudder broke on Saturday.
They activated the yacht's emergency radio beacon three days later, on Tuesday afternoon, after their yacht rolled during a heavy swell and high winds.
"Barbara and I were waiting after the boat turned upside down, holding each other, thinking for a split second that seemed to last for an eternity, 'is she going to turn upright?'," Mr Dwyer told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday night.
Each time another wave hit, the pair wondered if the sea would ultimately claim their lives.
"We encountered enormous seas, waves the size of buildings coming at you constantly, winds that you can't stand up in and seas breaking, whiteness everywhere," Mr Dwyer said.
It's the worst weather they've ever encountered, they say, and it's why they're so grateful to NSW water police for risking their lives, too.
"We have been in bad weather before, but this was extraordinary. It was off the scale of our experience," Mr Dwyer said.
"They are the absolute heroes for the courage they have shown to come out into that weather ... I can't fathom the courage," he said.
The patrol vessel Nemesis set off in response to their emergency beacon on Tuesday night and reached the yacht on Wednesday morning in six-metre swells and gale-force southerly winds.
The pair were transferred to the Nemesis by a container ship, the ANL Elanora, while their yacht was left to drift at sea.
Mr Dwyer said the yacht had been their home for the past 10 years and they weren't sure what they would do next.
After spending the night in a dry bed at NSW Police's Marine Area Command in Balmain the couple is now hoping their boat will drift ashore in the next couple of weeks.
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