'Hold on mate', dying fisherman told

After hours in the water, Ricky Burnside was forced to leave his friend behind and swim for safety alone. Picture / Amos Chapple

Ricky Burnside was forced to watch as the mate he swam with for hours died as he was being rescued.

Four and a half hours after leaving his sinking boat 2km off the Coromandel coast to swim to shore, Mr Burnside had to make a terrible decision. Tired, his legs cramping and his fishing mate Nicholas Scott in a terrible state, he decided to leave him and swim for help.

"It was about 1km from shore when I said to him I couldn't physically help to drag him any more and I couldn't have drifted and stayed with him for the rest of the night and survived myself."

The Hamilton man said the best option he could see was to leave his friend and swim for shore. "It would have been nice to be Superman for an hour," Mr Burnside said.

When his 3.65m Ramco boat capsized in the Firth of Thames around 8.30pm on Sunday, Mr Burnside and Mr Scott thought they could swim to buoys at a local mussel farm.

Both were wearing lifejackets and they thought it was about 1km.

But 4 1/2 hours later and no buoys in sight, Mr Burnside had to leave his ailing friend.

Mr Burnside swam for about six hours in all, but by the time help came for Mr Scott, 31, he had taken in so much water and was so sick he died before rescuers got him to shore.

The pair had swum for three hours, their arms linked, but as the tide turned and started dragging them out to sea, Mr Burnside knew his friend was struggling.

"We were just reassuring each other that we'd get there. He was shattered - we both were."

For a further hour and a half Mr Burnside dragged his friend by his lifejacket heading for house lights on the horizon.

He wishes his last conversation with his friend had been different.

"He was petrified, he knew he was not good. I said, 'Hold on mate, just hold on'. It's hard to deal with that when I was reaching land he was going."

Mr Burnside reached the shore and raised the alarm about 2am, and the Coast Guard pulled Mr Scott from the water about 3.50am but he died as they rescued him.

"It would have been nice to have the Coast Guard get him out alive so at least he knew I made the right decision," said Mr Burnside.

The pair had been friends for about 2 1/2 years but it was their first time fishing together.

Neither carried a cellphone.

"No one has said to me I made the wrong decision, but I know there will be people who think I did," said Mr Burnside.

Mr Scott's death was one in a bad weekend on the water.

A 13-year-old boy drowned on Saturday when the small boat he was in capsized in the Eastern Bay of Plenty in bad weather.

And a 27-year-old man is almost certainly dead after he was swept off rocks at Orokawa Bay, just north of Waihi Beach, on Monday.

Director of Maritime Safety Russell Kilvington says the weekend's events are a reminder to boaties to have communication equipment and check weather forecasts.

"If you get into trouble, you need to be able to tell someone to come and rescue you ... This can be as easy as having your mobile phone in a sealed plastic bag in your pocket so you can dial 111 if you find yourself in the water."