A late evening cigarette probably saved a sailor who may have been only minutes from death before he was hauled from the icy Dart by rescue hero Jamie Hudson-Bond.

The man was left clinging to the bow rope of his yacht near Noss Marina in the dark for some 20 minutes after he fell into the river from his dory boat just before 9pm on Easter Monday.

Meanwhile, his wife and their pet greyhound dog were left in the dory as it sailed out of control down the river before running into the riverbank more 200 yards beyond the yacht.

Mr Hudson-Bond had just gone up on deck on his own yacht for a cigarette when he heard the woman's cries for help.

By the time the 45-year-old marine engineer got to the desperate sailor he had been in the 7C river for more than 20 minutes and was literally blue with cold.

'The ambulance people said that if he had had to wait for the lifeboat to get there – and it was another 10 or 12 minutes – it would have been a different story.

'He was pretty hypothermic,' said Mr Hudson-Bond. As Mr Hudson-Bond took the sailor ashore the lifeboat began a search of the river for the dory containing the man's wife – who was found safe and well still in the boat with the dog further down the river.

'It was pitch black when it happened,' said Mr Hudson-Bond. 'It was just the right circumstances. I came out just as he was shouting and I had the right equipment to do the job.'

The sailor, his wife and their dog were on their way back to their 50ft wooden trawler moored off Higher Noss Creek where they live when the accident happened.

Mr Hudson-Bond, who has lived on his own 36ft converted trawler 'next door' for the last six years, said: 'I was watching TV when I went outside for a smoke. I heard shouting, got my gear on, popped into my RIB and scooted out to see where the shouting was coming from.

'As I went past his boat, I heard him shouting and spotted him clinging to the bow rope of his boat.

'I managed to whiz around to the other side and get right next to the buoy – by which time he was pretty cold, pretty hypothermic.

'I managed to cartwheel him into the RIB and get him ashore over to Noss.

'There was a lady in another boat on the pontoon and we managed to get him to the shower block and get him warmed up. He was blue with cold.

'I got back on board the RIB to look for the wife, the boat and the dog and the lifeboat turned up with a searchlight and they found her way past the creek.'

The sailor was taken to Torbay Hospital before being released later the same night.

While Mr Hudson-Bond was rescuing the sailor, another boat owner who had heard the cries for help had contacted the coastguard who alerted the Dart lifeboat.

The lifeboat was in action within minutes because nine of the lifeboat crew were at the Coronation Park boathouse attending a first aid course.

A Dart Lifeboat spokesman said: 'A couple had been returning in their dory to their boat moored off Higher Noss Creek. Close to their boat the skipper fell in and the uncontrolled boat with his wife and dog on board continued up the river in the dark.

'The skipper was recovered by another yachtsman moored nearby, Jamie Hudson-Bond, who searched for him in his tender and found him clinging to the bow rope of the skipper's yacht.

'By that time he had been in the 7C water for 20 minutes and was very cold. He took him to the Noss Marina where he was assessed by an ambulance crew and transferred to Torbay Hospital.

'The dory, with his wife on board, eventually hit the bank on the Kingswear side further upstream of the incident where she and the dog were located by the lifeboat crew and taken to the Noss Marina.'

The lifeboat crew were helmsman Buster Hart and crew members Yorkie Lomas and Steve Wallis.