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Cape Town - Rescuers were still searching on Sunday morning for a fisherman lost at sea near Gordon's Bay, Cape Town.
National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) spokesperson Craig Lambinon said their Gordon's Bay team received news of a distress flare sighting on Saturday evening and cut through the sea in a gale-force south easterly to investigate.
They spotted a torch light flashing in the distance and found three men clinging to the upturned hull of a snoek fishing boat about three quarters of a nautical mile from Harbour Island.
Five friends from Strand in Cape Town had gone snoek fishing for the day. They were on their way back when tragedy struck in the strong winds.
Their boat capsized and three of the friends managed to hold on until help arrived, holding on to the body of a fourth man, and watching the fifth man drift away into the dark.
He was wearing a life jacket so there was a strong hope that he had been pushed to shore by the currents and the direction and speed of the wind.
The police and Cape Town's emergency services assisted the NSRI, lighting up the shorefront and searching among rocks and in the shallow surf for him.
Families and friends waited anxiously in Gordon's Bay, with a trauma counsellor and a pastor comforting them.
The three who had been found were treated for hypothermia while the search continued.
Rescuers did not give up on him and were still looking for him early on Sunday morning.
