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Overboard Peterhead skipper was certain he would die without heroic intervention

John Kensett
John Kensett

A creel boat skipper feared he would die when he was dragged overboard as he worked off the Aberdeenshire coast.

John Kensett spent 40 minutes clinging to a float in the icy North Sea after a rope attached to one of his lobster pots snagged on his foot and pulled him into the water.

He managed to save himself from drowning by tearing off his oilskins before he was dragged under the waves.

And he said he owed his life to the two-man crew of a another small boat who spotted him waving and went to his aid.

The 34-year-old, who fishes out of Peterhead in his 30ft vessel Onward, said yesterday: “It was just a normal day, I was shooting the last leader of creels.

“I do it upwards of six times a day, but it caught on to my foot.

“I couldn’t get to my knife, so it pulled me clean into the water and started pulling me down.”

John-Kensett1
The Peterhead and Aberdeen RNLI lifeboats were both launched after the alarm was raised

A strong tide prevented him from making it to shore by swimming so he used an orange float from one of his creel lines to stop himself going under – and attract the attention of the crew of a passing boat.

David Buchan and Kevin Simpson, who were aboard the Boddam fishing vessel Leah, spotted him and pulled him out of the water.

Mr Kensett, from Cruden Bay, said: “People saved my life yesterday.

“I tried to swim to land, but couldn’t make it. I was struggling.

“As they started to come home, they saw me. There’s no question they saved my life.

“I was in the water for 40 minutes at that point, in the North Sea. I was hypothermic, exhausted and couldn’t move.

“Those two men, David Buchan and Kevin Simpson, saved my life.”

Mr Kensett was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary by ambulance for a check-up after his ordeal on Thursday afternoon.

Meanwhile, his boat was still on autopilot and on a collision course with commercial shipping traffic in Aberdeen Bay.

It had to be intercepted by a team from a marine services company

The Peterhead and Aberdeen RNLI lifeboats were both launched after the alarm was raised.

They were joined by the crew of a Greenhowe Marine Services’ vessel who heard a radio call for help.

A spokesman for the firm said: “Our crew went out and managed to get on board the fishing boat and one of our crewmen took it back into Aberdeen harbour.

“The boat was between Ythan and Balmedie and was heading towards supply boats and would have caused a lot of damage had it not been stopped.”

Mr Kensett – who sailed his vessel back from Aberdeen to Peterhead yesterday – said the accident would not deter him from fishing.

He added: “I’ll be going back over the weekend, it’s just the job, there’s no point in thinking about it.

“I would just like to thank the Leah for rescuing me, the coastguard, the RNLI, ARI and the ambulance crew.”