A fisherman tonight described his desperate fight for survival after his boat sank in the Irish Sea, leaving his best friend missing.
Mr Shane Murnaghan (28) said he was thrown into the water as he checked lobster pots off the County Down coast.
From his hospital bed in the Isle of Man, he described seeing his stricken friend Mr Colin Donnelly seconds before he himself climbed to safety.
He said: "I don't know what happened. The boat just went and when the life raft went off I swam to it. I saw Colin and he had a life jacket on.
"When I got into the life raft I turned around and Colin was gone."
Mr Murnaghan was speaking to his mother Rita from the Norbles Hospital in Douglas.
He was picked up nine miles south-east of the Isle of Man by a merchant vessel the Moondance after his life raft drifted for about 20 hours from close to his home port of Kilkeel.
Ms Rita Murnaghan said her son's only thoughts were for his best friend Mr Donnelly (31) who is still missing, and for Mr Donnelly's nine-year-old son Jordan.
As air sea rescue teams searched the Co Down coast, the distraught Donnelly family maintained an anxious vigil throughout the day at Kilkeel harbour.