A FISHERMAN has told of his horror as he drifted out to sea clinging to the side of his boat.

David Archer, 74, from Chelmsford, has been fishing off Frinton for more than 30 years, but his last fishing trip could have ended in tragedy.

The Walton lifeboat was launched when Mr Archer was spotted in the water 100 yards out to sea desperately hanging on to the side of his vessel last Wednesday.

The sea was calm, so the retired carpenter had launched the boat and anchored it to the beach while he took the trailer back up the ramp.

Mr Archer said: “When I came back, somehow it had drifted out to sea. I don’t know if it was a freak wave – it’s never happened before.

“I waded out to get it, but the water got deeper and deeper and came over my waders.”

He ditched his waders and tried to clamber up over the side into the boat, but the cold and weight of his waterlogged clothes meant it was impossible.

Mr Archer added: “I was struggling to get into it for a long, long time.

“It was so blinking cold. I was exhausted and when I looked back, the beach was getting further and further away as the wind blew the boat out.”

He decided to swim for it and eventually reached the shore. A woman took her coat off and wrapped him in it. By then the pensioner was suffering from hypothermia.

Lifeboat crew members wrapped him in blankets before he went to Broomfield Hospital for a check-up and was given the all-clear.

RNLI spokesman, Stewart Oxley, said: “It’s just one of those silly things.

“In this case it ended well. However, but for the grace of God, it could have ended horribly.”