A windsurfer who went for a quick sail off the south Wales coast had the wind put up him when a gust blew him way off course and across dangerous shipping lanes. Adam Cowles, 24, was blown 68 kilometres from Swansea across the busy Bristol Channel to south-west England, dodging cargo ships as he breezed by.
Stunned locals near Lynton, on the north Devon coast, rushed to the aid of the exhausted windsurfer after his three-hour, death-defying ordeal - by taking him straight down the pub.
"I had decided to venture just a little further than usual after setting off from close to County Hall," Cowles told the South Wales Evening Post newspaper.
"But I knew something was not quite right when I noticed it was just a speck in the far distance. I then went past a cargo ship. "I had a moment of inspiration. I just thought I would carry on and head towards Devon."
He emerged from the sea at Woody Bay asking baffled passers-by where he was.
"Even though I did not have any money, a couple took me off to a pub and bought me some beer. "There I was sitting in a pub, completely soaking and in my wetsuit but no-one batted an eyelid." Hardly in the mood for a return journey, he then had the tricky task of phoning his wife Sarah to come and collect him 450-kilometre round trip.
The sea temperature was just nine degrees centigrade and one slip could have proved fatal. "Turning round would have meant going into the wind and dodging the ships at slow speed - and I didn't like the look of them," The Sun newspaper quoted him as saying. "I was too tired to hang on any more and was afraid of getting into even more trouble. "I was very cold and if I fell off I might not have survived."
The local coastguard were not impressed. A spokesman said: "It was a completely foolish thing to do without proper planning. "If he had got into trouble we would have no idea whatsoever where to search." |