He's sailed off the Fylde since he was 20, and has spent the last 20 winters sailing around the Caribbean.
This year, having retired, Peter sailed to Guatemala in Central America, an area plagued by civil war, military coups and Government-sponsored genocide.
He found the sleepy village of Lagunita Salvador, inhabited by the last of the Maya Indians.
It changed his life. Now he hopes to change their's.
"We sailed up this little river, using a 10-year-old sketched map which showed this tiny tributary with a lake at the end of it," he recalls.
"When we dropped anchor, we were immediately surrounded by kids, in kayaks, boats loaded with nets. They didn't ask for anything, but just made us welcome."
To his astonishment, the village had its own jetty and hotel. Barely used.
"At one point a lot of money had been spent, but not recently. It's virtually isolated from the rest of the world. Yet there's the potential to do so much better, if more know about it."
Peter and wife Teresa overnighted there, and sailed to Belize next day.
But they couldn't get the village out of their mind and vowed to return.
When they did, they got to know the locals.
"It was then we saw the poverty and problems in paradise, the school, the struggle of the teachers who had been sponsored by Americans, probably missionaries, but hadn't heard from them for ages, so hadn't been paid.
"The teachers had just been housed and fed in the community. There are two classrooms, a one room concrete building, and another built of wood with a dirt floor.
"Twenty families, with about 44 children, live there, many of them refugees from various massacres, and they're highly organised. The Government had built some of the facilities, and the missionaries more, but the cash had dried up.
"They had a water system on the point of collapse, too costly or hard to maintain, and lots of other problems.
"I don't believe in God but really felt that divine intervention was steering us there."
Peter also reckons fate played a further hand.
"Some trainee doctors on a fishing trip stopped by, so started to help, too. They went to look at the little clinic, cleaned it up, and did some general nursing. They found the local children suffering from malnutrition."
Peter dug into his own pocket, and appealed to friends, fellow rotarians, and family back home in Blackpool, to finance the teachers for this year. "They were doing it out of love for the kids."
During a brief flying visit to the Fylde, he organised a support group. "I'd like to register it as a charity but doing that's so time-consuming."
The couple left their yacht moored back in Guatemala. "They have a small jetty but I'm trying to raise funds to have it extended."
Their permanent base in now Spain, where Peter has another yacht, but their heart is in Lagunita, where they now have a half share of a house and a small plot of land.
"It's a beautiful area, in a conservation zone, real Tarzan country. The river winds through it all, there are cliffs 400ft high, monkeys and crocs. The community is situated around a small lake about half a mile long by quarter mile wide reached by a creek half a mile long by 30ft wide."
Peter is keen to help the locals become self-sustaining through agriculture, fishing, and, ultimately, tourism.
"They have a dance festival once a year but don't invite anybody other than other Indian groups. Some of the American and European yachties know the area – but most don't. People tend to be brought in by guide, tour the village, then go. The villagers aren't even geared up to make any money out of them – it all goes in other people's pockets."
The locals tribe and language is Q'eqchi (pronounced Ketchi ). They are part of a group of five villages of Maya Q'eqchi with 344 children situated off the Rio Dulce known as the Biotopo Chochon Machacas conservation area.
"What we found changed our lives. Now we hope to change their's. Up until 15 years ago the Maya people were victims of genocide. At least 400 villages were wiped out, 200,000 people killed.
"We met villagers whose parents had been shot before them. The whole village is new, made up of people who have escaped the ravages of extermination.
"They need all the help they can get.
"Our priority is to raise money to pay for the teachers, next to bring drinkable water to the village.
"A concrete tower with a plastic tank feeds a washing area with three bowls and a tap, the tank filled with rainwater from a small corrugated tin catchment panel, but it never rained once in the four months we were there.
"Everyone collects water from the hotel's supply where a well has been dug, deeper than the lake, which allows water to seep in. A portable petrol pump pumps water into an overhead tank. This is the only source of drinkable water in the village.
"They can fund themselves if they can get the hotel going properly, together with a fish farm, small marina, and better exploitation of their handicrafts to the cruise ship visitors, and individual yachties. They could become self-funding in a few years.
"My wife and I are prepared to help. In May, this year, we raised £1,865 from our family and close friends, to cover the cost of one teacher for the year and keep the school open.
"But any contributions, large or small, would be most welcome. It's a leap of faith, I know, but – believe us it's worth it."
l Peter's email is ptsonatina@aol.com or he can be contacted at (00 34) 69 79 85 552 Address; Calle Rio Narcea 64, Castalla Int. 03420, Alicante, Espana. The couple will be back in Blackpool in December and are willing to give talks on their experiences to local groups.

jacqui.morley@blackpoolgazette.co.uk