A family have rescued a 72-year-old man from the waters off the Isle of Wight after his fishing boat sank.
Mark Leach and his family were sailing
on their yacht Timolisa on Tuesday
when they spotted the boat in difficulty.
Mr Leach, a 43-year-old geography
teacher from Oxted in Surrey, dived in
and swam to the pensioner who was
unconscious and face down in the water.
The Solent Helicopter flew the man
to hospital on the island, where he is recovering.
Mr Leach, who was on the first day of his summer holiday with his wife and three children,
called the coastguard when he noticed the fishing boat in trouble. He said: "The boat went
down very quickly and we could see a man in the water trying to swim, but with no lifejacket.
We motored over at full speed and I just dived in."
by the time he reached the man, about 2 minutes after the boat went down, he was unconscious and sinking into the water, Mr leach said.
"I rolled him over and swam him to our boat and my son Ben pulled us onto the outboard. It took everything I had to get him into the boat."
Ben, 16, climbed out of the boat and tied a rope round the man to keep his face out of the water. When the helicopter arrived on the scene, a nearby fishing vessele called Provider was used as a platform for the rescue team to recover the man.
Nigel Guyll, solent Coastguard Duty Watch Manager, said "The family who rescued this man saved his life. Their actions in alerting the coastguard to this incident before attempting the rescue were entirely appropriate. The man was taken to a hospital on the Isle of Wight where he is recovering from his ordeal."
The rescue took place on Tuesday afternoon 1.3 miles west of Cowes harbour entrance.
