A ROMANTIC sailor who almost died after getting stranded on a sinking yacht is swapping sunbaked Lanzarote for a Ribble Valley wedding.

Paul Kay, 35, whose parents Ian and Pamela still live in Meins Road, Pleasington, first left Blackburn 10 years ago and has been in the Canary Islands for four years.

Two year ago he met his fiancee Elizabeth Fernyhough, 28, from Derby. Last year, they decided to get hitched -- and plan to bring many of their international friends back to East Lancashire for their big day.

After initially working as a tour guide in Lanzarote, Paul began work for a firm which takes daytrippers out on a catamaran.

When he had a week off two years ago, he was invited to help crew a private yacht from Lanzarote to Gibraltar.

During the crossing, they hit and storm causing the mainsail to break off. The vessel then began taking on water and the next 50 hours Paul, along with a captain, and 81-year-old man and a 13-year-old boy, desperately tried to bale water out of the catamaran.

They were only winched to safety when Paul, a former Witton Park and Blackburn College student, created a makeshift radio using batteries from one of their lifeboats. The couple will marry in November during a candlelit service being held at St Mary's Church, in Whitewell, followed by a reception at the nearby Inn At Whitewell.

Paul, who worked as a panelbeater before initially moving abroad to be a holiday rep, said: "I know most people think it would be great to have their wedding abroad but we decided it would be good to come back home for ours. I grew up in and around Blackburn and have family in Whitewell. It would have been strange to have got married anywhere else.

"We have got it all planned more or less, we just hope it goes well on the day."

The Ribble Valley in November couldn't be more different to the holiday island of Lanzarote. In Lanzarote, the temperature rarely drops below 30 degrees Celsius and it rains, on average, just 11 days a year.

In contrast, East Lancashire winters enjoy average temperatures of between one and 12 degrees -- with either rain or snow dominating forecasts.

Paul now lives with Elizabeth, airport manager for Thomson Holidays at Lanzarote's capital Arrecife, in the Puerto Callero, said to be the island's answer to Spain's Marbella.

Paul added: "The weather is one of the things I don't miss about being over here all time. Over all, the lifestyle here in Lanzarote is so much better. It is a lot more relaxed.

"But I thought it would be important to get married at home surrounded by friends and family."