A fisherman was rescued from a life raft by a £50m offshore patrol vessel that spotted a red distress flare after his boat sank in the Solent.

The small fishing vessel “Seaquest” sank two miles south west of St Catherine’s Point just after 2.30pm on Sunday. Retired naval officer Adrian Dann, 49 was spoke to The Gazette about his dramatic from his home in Lee on Solent. He said:

“ I had planned to go out for a quiet day’s fishing. The weather was fine and I was just passing St Catherine Point.

“Suddenly the boat was hit by a wave that rocked it, then an even bigger wave hit me from the left and the boat was totally swamped. I put down the anchor to get rid of some weight and started the bilge pumps. At first I thought that the two pumps that I has fitted would be able to handle it

“But a few minutes later the alarms started sounding on the pumps, just as I was talking to the coastguard on the radio explaining what had happened

“I was in a state of shock so I called the coastguard to say that I was in trouble and I needed help. I looked down at the amount of water there was and thought it time to launch the life raft. There was just too much water in the boat for me to stay there.”

Her continued:

“The Coastguards were brilliant and said they where going to scramble the rescue helicopter from Lee on Solent.They also said they had launched a lifeboat.

“As I jumped into the lift raft I fired off a red flare hoping that another passing boat would spot it.”

The flare was spotted by The Port Of Spain - designed by BAE systems for use in Trinidad and Tobago – as a Coastguard rescue who were on trials at the time. The Captain launched a fast rescue craft from the ship to pick up Mr. Dann.

He was rescued from the life raft and taken back to the ‘Port of Spain’ suffering from shock and hyperthermia as his 25ft boat sank. Crew of the rescue craft from the ‘Port of Spain’ then went back to recover the life raft they had just plucked Adrian from. Adrian said:

“One of my old shipmates was one of the officers on board so he called my wife for me to inform her. I spoke to her afterwards and she was shocked as well. However, a nice cup of tea did the trick.

“I was in shock and the team did a wonderful job in treating the shock.’I now feel fine - after several cups of tea!”

Mr. Dann was dropped off by the crew at Gunwharf Quays where his wife met him later that night. A spokesman for Solent Coastguard, watch manager Dave Williams said:

“We took a radio called from a fisherman who explained that his boat was filling with water. We scrambled the helicopter from Lee on Solent and the Yarmouth RNLI all-weather lifeboat was also launched. Coastguard Auxiliaries from the Ventnor coastguard rescue team were also called out to keep a look out to look for the vessel. He went on to say he was very luck that It’s very fortunate the ship was in the vicinity.

“I’m sure he is very grateful to them, but this man helped to bring about his own speedy rescue by being well prepared for his trip.

“He had a VHF radio, the correct kit including a life raft and emergency flares and he was able to give the coastguard an accurate position.”

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