sailor feared drowned returns home -a month after boat sinks

LONDON (AFP) - A British yachtsman who was presumed to have drowned after his boat smashed onto rocks has returned home safely to his family -- a month after the accident.

Police in Dorset, southeast England, have no idea where Justin Griffin has been in the meantime, the Daily Telegraph said.

Griffin went missing on June 28, and his 20ft (six-metre) yacht was found later in a damaged state off shoreline close to his home, the report said.

The boat's sails were raised, its rudder was broken and Griffin's mobile phone was on board. Rescue teams launched a search but found no sign of him and warned that with sea temperatures low, it was unlikely he had survived.

Griffin's wife, with whom he has two daughters, said at the time that she was "praying for a miracle" -- one that was answered on Wednesday night when he suddenly arrived home.

"We received a call from his wife to say that he had just walked home," a spokesman for Dorset Police told the newspaper.

"We will be speaking to Mr Griffin to find out where he has been for the past month. We don't know what he's been doing or where he's been," he added, refusing to comment on reports that Griffin might have lost his memory.