A crew which saved the lives of fishermen washed into the sea by a freak wave have been rewarded for their bravery.
Anstruther Lifeboat volunteers battled extremely rough conditions in the early hours of a cold and dark winter morning to rescue the pair after they were washed off the breakwater at St Monans harbour.
They and a third angler, who raised the alarm shortly after 3am, were found in danger on the breakwater and transferred to a waiting ambulance.
The men escaped serious injury in the incident in February last year, but were said to be lucky to be alive.
RNLI trustee Sir Andrew Cubie presented station coxswain Michael Bruce and senior helmsman Barry Gourlay with a chairman’s letter of thanks which commended the crew’s ‘courage, determination and excellent seamanship’.
By the time the inshore lifeboat arrived on the scene, the men had managed to get themselves out of the water and were sheltering behind a raised part of the breakwater in near freezing temperatures.
Conditions were so rough, caused by the shallow water in the harbour channel, that it took the lifeboat three attempts to manoeuvre alongside the breakwater to get to them.
The lifeboat crew took the fishermen to the old boatyard slipway where an ambulance was waiting.
* For more on this story see Friday’s Courier, also available as a digital edition.
