As we went to press yesterday (Thursday), a Pembrokeshire fisherman was still missing after a trawler capsized and sank in Carmarthen Bay at the weekend. Thirty-one-year-old John Askey, of Reynalton, was on board the Pamela S, with the vessel's skipper, his brother-in-law Dougie Hook, 38, of Pembroke Dock, when it sank while they were out fishing between Lydstep and Pendine. A member of Mr. Hook's family raised the alarm at 12.30 am on Sunday when the men did not return as planned to Saundersfoot Harbour. The 25-foot trawler had sunk 10 hours earlier at around 2.30 pm on Saturday. After the vessel went down, Mr. Hook spent an amazing seven hours struggling to keep hold of his crew mate, before then swimming against the tides for a further four hours to reach Pendine Sands. When the alarm was raised, Tenby RNLI's all- weather lifeboat was launched to assist the police and coastguards in their search for the fishermen, while the town's inshore lifeboat and an RAF rescue helicopter from Chivenor in Devon were also tasked. Mr. Hook was miraculously found alive on Pendine Beach at 2.45 am on Sunday. Suffering from hypothermia, he was immediately taken to West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen by ambulance. Shortly before daylight, the lifeboats found the sunken vessel some three miles south of Pendine. The search for Mr. Askey was subsequently called off on Sunday evening. Coastguard watch officer, Julie Wood, said that Mr. Hook's survival was a 'remarkable feat of human courage and endurance.' "Even at this time of year the water temperature is just 14 degrees; it's still quite icy," she said "To survive for 10 hours wearing just a T-shirt and light trousers is incredible," she continued. "The tide was with him when he started his swim ashore, but it turned and that would have made it even more difficult to reach the beach. "But even then his ordeal wasn't over because the tide was out by then and he had to drag himself up the sand," she added. An inquiry has been launched by the Marine Accident Investigation Board.
