As frightened islanders sheltered in their homes during the height of Fabian's fury fisherman Blake West and his son James were diving in Flatt's Bay in a bid to save their boat.

The pair ran from their Shelly Bay home in swimming shorts, while coconuts rained down in 100 mph winds, after learning their boat Troubadour had bust one of its moorings.

Fearing the loss of his livelihood if the 42-foot craft was scuppered Mr. West Sr. ignored the pleadings of his wife Jennifer and set off after being tipped off by friends shortly after 6 p.m Friday.

"We made that run in about eight minutes, it was an eight minute mile in the storm," said Mr. West, 49, who said his son Jim, 20, wore a crash helmet for protection from coconuts.

"It was kind of surreal running in the rain with no cars on the road. There were hundreds of coconuts coming down. If one of them hits you on your head you are done for."

Once at the dock the pair had to swim out 30 yards to the boat.

"The current was rough, I can tell you. I was trying to take a breath but you would be struck by a wave and swallow a lot of water but it wasn't too dangerous. You just have to watch it."

He said his boat had lost its bow mooring.

The pair located the problem to a weak link in a chain deep in the mud. The pair then had to dive down to retrieve the anchor which had tangled in other moorings.

"You could not see very well," said Mr. West. "It was right at the bottom but the water was only about eight feet deep.

"I took a turn and then my son took a turn, I was getting pretty tired.

"Being on the surface was harder, once you got under water there was less pull. It was easier to deal with no waves breaking in your face."

Mr. West said he spent half hour in the water while son Jim spent 20 minutes including a swim to the shore to hook up the new mooring before swimming back to Troubadour.

Then the pair had to pull the Troubadour's bow around 90 degrees, another tiring and lengthy operation.

"We pulled against wind and tide was very difficult.

"It took 20 minutes to pull it, but if felt like an hour it was blowing so hard," said Mr. West.

"The whole thing took about an hour and a half getting Troubadour under control."

The daring rescue mission was witnessed by old school friend Dennis Sousa from his home overlooking Flatt's harbour.

"Dennis rang my wife to say I was doing OK," said Mr. West. "She was scared witless when we left her."

Jenny West said she remembered the phone call coming through that the boat was in trouble.

"I knew they would try and rescue it, he tried to rescue a dinghy in the last hurricane.

"I was pretty upset. The wind was getting worse.

"A neighbour kept calling to make sure I was all right. I was mopping up and trying to keep busy. I was wanting to go with them but knew I could not."

Minutes later Mr. Sousa rang to say they were already at Flatt's. "It was so quick, they must have been going on adrenaline.

"I was pretty tense, I had a couple of glasses of wine."

Then she was told the pair were in the water but no other calls came and then she saw them return with son Jim still wearing the crash helmet.

She said her husband was nonchalant about the whole ordeal. True to form he told The Royal Gazette: "It was exciting but no big deal.

"I am a fisherman and this is my job. We didn't even think twice. To replace that boat would cost $150,000 but it's almost irreplaceable.

"I built it 23 years ago. It's a one-off boat, there's no other like it. I built it to be really strong so I was really worried about it damaging other boats.

"I knew she would only need a bit of filling and painting but I didn't want to mash everybody else's boat.

"I didn't think I would lose my life. I wasn't going to let that happen. I never felt in danger but we are both pretty strong swimmers.

"The coconuts were more scary than anything else."