A young European man has been discharged from hospital after falling from a cliff on the Tasman Peninsula and into the ocean on Sunday.
The man in his 20s and his partner veered off the Mount Brown walking track when they slipped and plunged into the water.
While the woman managed to swim back to shore, the man was swept out to sea.
A rescue helicopter and local police were dispatched to assist in the search, but it was a Pennicott Wilderness tour boat that ultimately reached the man approximately 200m from the shore.
Owner Rob Pennicott said his crew had just completed a tour and offloaded passengers when they received a mayday call.
Four crew members rushed to the scene and threw the man a lifebuoy, pulling him on board the boat.
“He was pretty buggered and pretty lucky,” Pennicott told ABC Radio.
“If we weren’t there the chopper, I’m sure, would have got him out okay. But he was on his last legs after an hour in the water.”
Pennicott described the sea conditions at the time as relatively calm, with only a slight swell and a water temperature of 19 degrees.
He said two crew members had stripped down “probably to their jocks” and were prepared to jump in if necessary.
“An hour in that water for someone who’s not used to that is a long, long time,” Pennicott said. The man had been in the water for about 50 minutes.
Pennicott commended his crew – Ben, Nick, Andrew and Tom – for their rapid and effective response.
“I think that’s number five for the month of rescues that we’ve done,” he said.
He said his team is often the first to respond to emergencies because they are already out on the water.
“We’re usually a first point of call for a lot of people. So I do pass on to all my staff. They do a terrific job on that,” he said.
“Every year we do pull people out of the water, sometimes in the Derwent, sometimes other places. Every month we’d be doing rescues of some sort.”
