Skipper Robert (Bobby) Lambe last night spoke to The Royal Gazette about his battle to stay alive after his fishing boat sank off the coast of Bermuda - and his torment over the loss of his two crewmen.

Speaking in the mid-Atlantic from American naval hospital ship the USNS Comfort, which plucked him from the treacherous ocean on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Lambe said, physically, he was making a good recovery, but he was finding it difficult knowing that his friends Alan Edness and Micah Battersbee had been lost.

Mr. Lambe spent an incredible 20 hours clinging to a broken piece of his capsized boat New Nuts before eventually being spotted by US Coast Guard search crews about 80 miles north east of the Island.

The life expectancy for someone in those conditions would normally only be 11 hours.

"I'm feeling pretty good - I'm coping," said the 34-year-old fisherman.

"I think about my two mates - I just think about them. It's okay now, but when I get back home, it's going to be a different story. I will have to really deal with it all when I get home.

"I want to talk to the families, but I don't know what I'm going to say; I'm sorry. I don't know if they are going to resent me or what."

Mr. Lambe and his two crewmen left the Island on Monday morning in search of abandoned yacht Altair when their vessel ran into storms.

They were making their way back to Bermuda on Tuesday when a freak wave hit at about 6.30 p.m., overturning the boat and causing it to sink minutes later.

Mr. Lambe, of Beach Estate, Somerset, managed to escape, but Mr. Edness, 56, from St. Anne's Road, Southampton, and Mr. Battersbee, 29, from Dock Hill, Devonshire, who were both fathers, went down with the boat.

Yesterday, Mr. Lambe relived the moment his life changed for ever.

"The weather was absolutely lousy. I had Micah to my side and Alan was standing behind me. I was just getting ready to get out of the way of the steering wheel, and was handing over to Alan, so I could go for a nap.

"I was telling him to hold on lightly because the weather was pretty bad and we would not be making much speed tonight.

"Alan was talking about the weather and Micah was sitting on the side - he was semi-asleep and I was teasing him about that.

"We were hoping to be back the next morning. I never had any doubt in my mind that we would not get back okay. We thought it would be a slow night, but that was it."

But, sadly, that was not to be the case and disaster was just moments away.

"I looked up and the sky just disappeared. I told them `guys hang on, there is a wave here'. I saw it coming, but the boat just rolled over.

"I had held on to the steering wheel, and I hung on to that until the boat stopped moving. The lights were out - there was no light whatsoever."

Mr. Lambe said it was pitch black, but there seemed to be little commotion or chaos on board the boat. He said at no point did he hear either of his friends call out or scream. "It was pitch black and we were under water," explained Mr. Lambe.

"Then I proceeded to get out of the boat. I ended up in my fishing box, so I could tell where I was, and I got out of the boat.

"I came up alongside the boat and the top of the cabin was torn off. As soon as I got out of the water, I started calling. I was standing on top of the bridge, on the surface of the water. I was calling to them. I was calling their names. I heard nothing. I never got a reply, so I left there."

Mr. Lambe, who has made international headlines around the globe this week with his miraculous escape, said he then tried to climb on top of the boat.

He managed to get on top of the keel, where he was able to start banging on the bottom of the boat to his friends, but he still did not get any answer.

"I was in a little bit of shock, but I knew what had taken place," said a calm and articulate Mr. Lambe. "I was looking for the guys to come out from under the boat, but it never took place. I knew I had to hang on to the boat until daylight."

But Mr. Lambe said before long, the boat started to roll again, and this time it was for good. Moments later the boat sank.

"I was looking around for something to hang on to - I never saw a life raft," he remembered.

"I saw this piece of wood float by, about six foot by eight foot, so I climbed on top of that and managed to stay on top of it all night.

"I was just hoping and praying that the EPIRB (emergency positioning indicator radio beacon) went off."

But Mr. Lambe said it was at that moment that he spotted something that would contribute to saving his life.

"When the boat rolled, I managed to get a bottle of Red Devil energy drink, and I held on to that," he added. "As soon as the sun came up I had a little bit. Even when I got into the life raft, I still had a good bit left. I was using it to just wet my mouth. I was thinking long-term."

Mr. Lambe said once the boat went down, he lost all track of time. It was dark when the boat sank, so he just tried to stay calm and relaxed.

"I thought I had two days in me. On Wednesday, I thought I had another day and another night in me. I tried to stay as calm and as relaxed as possible. It was cold, but not that bad. Every couple of minutes or so, I was rolled over (by the waves) on the board, but the current did not pull me down.

"Fortunately, I had been eating all day on the boat, so that helped. I was tired of hanging on to the life raft and getting rolled over during the night. My legs started going in the cramp, and I had a few cuts on my hands and feet, but that was all really. I felt okay."

But Mr. Lambe said he knew he needed to return to Bermuda to explain to the three families what had happened, and that was what kept him alive more than anything else.

"I said to myself that I had to get back to tell everybody what had taken place," said a calm and collected Mr. Lambe.

"In everybody's minds, a boat goes missing and three crew go missing, and families don't know what happened and they live the rest of their lives not knowing what took place. I wanted to give them a little piece of mind.

"I was just hoping the plane would come."

But Mr. Lambe, who has lived and worked on the water all of his life, said he was not scared of the ocean. To him, being in the water was second nature, he said. "I wasn't scared of what was around me, but I had a turtle come up and pay me a visit," he said.

"I tried to chase him away, but he came back. I told him not to hang around me. I figured a turtle comes to fish, and everything else.

"I didn't see anything else."

Eventually, just before day break, the US Coast Guard C-130 search aircraft did pass overhead - several times, but it did not spot Mr. Lambe, who was floundering in seas with a 15 foot swell.

He said the plane passed over him about eight to ten times before he was finally seen, waving his board like crazy.

"There was a time when I thought I would not make it," said Mr. Lambe.

"The pilot went over me about eight to ten times, then he was going away from me. I figured he could not be carrying on the search. I thought once the search was called off the chance of being spotted by another boat was nil."

But Mr. Lambe's luck did not run out there. After waiting in the water a while longer, he soon realised that the search had not been called off.

"Within an hour, the plane came back again, and this time he came right over the top of me. He still didn't see me. The ocean was completely white by now, so I slipped the board over (on to its blue side), and the change of colour did something. Then he noticed me right there."

It was the longest night and morning for Mr. Lambe, but he realised the horror of his ordeal would soon be coming to an end.

He was thrown a life raft, which he was able to swim towards and climb into, where he patiently waited, the bottle of energy drink in his hand, until the US Comfort turned up two hours later to collect him. The warship had left Maryland on Monday and was heading to the Persian Gulf for the possible war against Iraq when it was asked to divert to assist in the rescue of Mr. Lambe.

From that moment on, he said he knew he was going to be just fine. He was still in the sick bay of the medical ship last night, but he said he could not have been picked up by anyone better - there are more than 300 nurses and doctors aboard.

He has recovered from hypothermia, but his body is still recovering from the exhaustion of the ordeal. But he has no complaints about the way he is being treated on board Comfort.

He said the crew were waiting on him hand and foot, and everyone wanted to hear his story, so they could learn more about surviving at sea for such long periods.

But he said he personally believed that his level fitness played a significant role in his survival. He runs five or six miles a day, so had the physical strength to continue battling against the odds.

"I am still in sick bay; they are saying I may be here another day, but I'm doing good," said Mr. Lambe. "They want to keep an eye on me."

But he said he had no idea when he would be able to come home, or where he was going.

"I don't know where I'm going, but I don't really care. I do want to get home to explain to everybody what took place, but I'm happy to be alive. I'm basically going with the flow. If they offered me a job, I would take it here. I have been watching DVD's and eating of plenty of food, so I have been okay. Give me another two days and I will be running up and down the ship (on deck)."

But Mr. Lambe said he had been a little overwhelmed by the international media attention he had received in the last few days.

But he said throughout it all, his friends and family back in Bermuda, had never been far from his mind.

And he has already started to think about returning to the water when he returns to the Island.

"As soon as I get back home, I will get a new boat," he said firmly. "The boat (New Nuts) was fine. I have fished it off shore many times for many years and have never had a problem with it. It was quite sufficient to do the job. I will go out again."

But having been lost and rescued at sea twice in his life so far, Mr. Lambe said he did not want to push his luck. Contrary to reports that he must be a cat with nine lives, he said he believes he had only been given three.

"I have had a couple of shots, I don't think I will get to nine," he said.

But now all he is concentrating on is coming back to Bermuda where he can spend time with his family.

He said he had shed a slight tear when his first spoke to his father on the telephone on Thursday, but had managed to keep it together apart from that. However, he doubted he would be so restrained when he arrives back. "I want to tell everyone that I love them, and I will be home soon," he said.