The adventurous Mac Fadyen ­couple – Richard and Renee – have a life story worthy of the silver screen.

They built themselves a long and happy 60-year marriage, but it all started in a little street in Margate, England.

Renee had moved to Margate after her family was killed during the London blitz, when Nazi Germany bombed the United Kingdom. Her house and family were bombed, but she somehow survived the blast.

Sent off to live with a relative she met a fit young man called Richard who lived nearby.

“He never courted me,” Renee said.

“We only went on one date, to the cinema.”

Richard was enamoured by Renee and, with all the bravado of someone who had drunk too many beers, he decided he would ask her to marry him.

“I jammed myself up in the corner of the kitchen and said will you marry me,” Richard said.

“I told him to come back when he was sober,” Renee said.

They were married on September 24, 1955, at St John’s Baptist Church in Margate.

There were just 17 guests –  and two of them were wedding crashers that the Mac Fadyens had never met. 

Renee had always wanted to live in Canada, but Richard had an offer to take over a business in Sri Lanka.

In the end they settled on moving to Australia as a compromise.

They left England in May, 1957 for a long sea voyage to Australia and arrived in July.

Richard had a job with BHP and asked to be sent to the warmest location, which ended up being Newcastle.

They stayed in a hostel at Mayfield until they could establish themselves and eventually bought land at Edgeworth.

“I had never seen a wood house before,” Richard said.

“I walked around and looked at them and I decided to build one.”

Like many people who had relocated to Australia, it was tough.

They had a tiny car in which they could only fit 50 bricks at a time and had to do multiple trips to the brickyards and back.

They didn’t have water so they ­waited until it rained to mix the cement.

A deal with a kind stranger saw Richard pre-cut most of the house, an idea well before its time, and ­eventually they had their home.

During this time their family grew to include five children.

“We didn’t have television,” Richard said by way of explanation.

But they had everything they needed for a happy family life.

They opened their own television repair business and worked side-by-side, then bought a farm in Branxton and eventually moved to East Maitland.

But as the years went on Renee became increasingly home sick and Richard started to want more from life.

“He’d walk up and down and say ‘there’s got to be more to life than this’,” Renee said.

Richard decided he would like to build a boat and Renee thought it would make him much happier to have a project, so she organised for the plans of a 32-foot yacht to be his birthday present.

“When he saw them he said ‘it’s not going to be big enough’,” Renee laughed.

­“I said ‘big enough for what’.

“And he said ‘to go home’.”

That was enough to convince her and off they went to get plans for a 38-foot boat which Richard worked on ­tirelessly so he could sail his lady love back home.

“We had no idea about sailing,” Richard laughed.

“Boat building was all the rage, everyone was building them.  So when it was done the University of Newcastle tested it and said it was fine.

“We did a practice run to Broughton Island and then we left from Newcastle Harbour.”

With a sextant as their guide the couple and two of their children successfully sailed up the east coast of Australia, across the Indian Ocean and up the coast of Africa to the Red Sea.

About 48 kilometres south of Port Sudan near a place called Suakin the family was forced to drop anchor.

They thought they had clearance to travel further up the Red Sea but instead they were arrested by secret police and taken to a prison in Port Sudan.

“It was very scary,” Renee said.

The arrest ended up a simple miscommunication and was sorted out, but the family was  shaken by the experience and in their haste to leave they sailed into a headwind.

“We hit a reef, the boat sank,” Richard said.

The four of them bobbed around in the water for a while before they were rescued, again ending up in Suakin.

Here they spent a month living in a hut and Richard would travel out by boat every day to the wreckage of their yacht to patch up the hole with the help of some fellow sailors.

When they managed to float the boat again it was towed to Port Sudan where the family lived for another year while more repair works were done.

Finally they boarded their yacht and set off for England once more.

“We went to the gulf [Gulf of Suez ] and up the canal and then an oil tanker ran us down,” Richard said.

“We finished up in a dinghy this time but we lost everything. We got to an oil rig and from there we managed to get  back to Cairo.”

With just one bag between the four of them the family eventually boarded a plane to Greece and then a bus and a ferry to England, finally making it home.

With no money and no belongings they had no alternative but to go straight back to work at Margate.

“It took us three years to get enough money again,” Richard said.

After so much adventure you would think the couple would have taken some time out, but instead Richard got to work building a caravan and off they went around the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

They loved England but their family was in Australia, so they moved back to the Hunter.

Richard went on to build more boats and caravans in which they have toured all over the country.

They shave spent a collective 37 years on boats and only gave it up three years ago.

They have 12 grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and a 60-year love story packed with adventure.

“Our family motto is it’s not what you’ve got it’s what you do with what you’ve got,” Richard said.

“Renee has always been up for anything.

“I worship the ground she walks on. 

“I wouldn’t change a thing.”