‘We were getting slammed out there’

“WE were getting slammed in every direction. It was like a washing machine out there,” crewmember Joe Finelli said, having spent three hours adrift in notoriously dangerous waters more than 5km from the Fastnet Lighthouse, off Mizen Head.

Speaking after he was plucked to safety by the crew of a Baltimore-based private diving tours vessel, the Wave Chieftan, he said if they had washed up against the Fastnet Rock they would have tried to clamber to safety. “What else could we do?” he said

Finelli was among five crew members that were separated from the capsized vessel as it keeled over.