Families kept chilly bin swimmers going

Jason Yorke (left) and Lyndon Enright, with the chilly bin and life jackets that helped save their lives.

Two men who used a chilly bin to help them swim 2km to shore when their dinghy sank off Papamoa Beach last night say their "driving force" was their partners and young children.

Jason Yorke and Lyndon Enright, both 39 and from Tauranga, swam for around three hours before they reached land, celebrating with "a big man hug", a hot shower and a cold beer.

They were both wearing life jackets when their 3m aluminium dinghy was swamped by a wave while fishing off Papamoa Beach about 8.30pm.

"We rode down the crest of a wave and rode into the back of another one. The one in front broached, the boat rolled and filled the boat with water and from there it sort of just capsized," a tired Mr Yorke said today.

"Lyndon tried to get the phone out of the bag, climb on top of the boat and call for help, but the phone got wet, so we only had one other option and that was to start swimming."

The pair "grabbed the last floating thing" -- their chilly bin full of snapper, and started swimming.

They never doubted they would make it, with Mr Yorke saying their "beautiful partners" and children -- both have 5-month-old babies, and Mr Enright also has a 4-year-old son -- had kept them going.

"Those things stick with you the whole time, and that's the driving force," he said.

"We never panicked, which was a big thing. We're both pretty able seamen, we knew what we had to do, we knew it was going to take a long time and we knew we would get there, so that was it really."

It was about 11.30pm by the time they made it to shore, with Mr Yorke saying it was an "emotional relief, especially when we touched sand for the first time".

"We couldn't walk, we were jelly-legged," he said.

"We gave each other a big man hug, and just said, 'We did it'."

By that stage a search party was out on the beach looking for them, after Mr Yorke's wife Stacey "had a feeling something wasn't right".

The men could see the headlights when they were halfway to shore, but had no way of signalling to their families.

They came to shore about 1km away from the search party, and walked up the beach towards the lights with their chilly bin full of fish.

"That was just as hard [as the swim]."

It was lucky their children were too young to understand what had happened, the pair said. However, Mr Enright was now in the unenviable position of not being able to keep a promise to his 4-year-old.

"I'd promised him that he'd help me start the motor this morning," the commercial fisherman explained. "He kept looking outside asking me where the boat was, and why we couldn't start the motor."

The ordeal has not put the pair of fishing, but prompted them to promote the use of life jackets.

"We are fortunate not to be a statistic, we're lucky to be one of the ones who survived," Mr Yorke said.

Mr Enright urged people to "wear a life jacket".

"That is the message -- be prepared man, you never know when it will happen to you."

Police said it was the "best outcome of a bad situation".

"The wearing of life jackets by these two men certainly avoided a tragedy, vindicating the safe boating message of wearing life jackets at all times," Senior Sergeant Glenn Saunders said.