Fran Pastor, who plies the pirate infested waters off Nerja in a rubbish-collection skiff, had his moment of glory when he came to the rescue of a drowning man.

It was noon on the last Wednesday of July when the lone, crew member of the cleaning boat that skims floating rubbish off the surface of the sea saw a crowd of bathers gathered on the shoreline at the western end of El Playazo, more or less in front of Hotel Marinas in Nerja.

Fixing his gaze on what they were all pointing at, he saw a person struggling in the water not far from where he was about 150 meters from the beach, so he hoisted his nets out of the water and throttled the small motor to maximum output to reach swimmer in distress.

The 30-year-old victim was clearly exhausted and was having trouble keeping afloat as he was suffering from an attack of severe cramp in one of his legs.

When Fran reached him and pulled him out of the water, the victim was pail, breathless and in a great deal of pain, but didn’t stop thanking Fran for fishing him out.

He then ferried the man back to the beach were a Guardia Civil patrol had arrived, perhaps to see why so many people had gathered in one spot but more likely because they had received a call from one of the family of the swimmer.

An ambulance also soon arrived and the paramedics attended to the man whose attack of the cramps would have been just a painful inconvenience had he not been 150 meters out in the water, where he would have surely drowned had it not been for the rubbish-collection skiff and the quick reactions of Fran Pastor.

There is one controversial point though: the lifeguards who are designated to that beach do not start their daily duty until 12.00h yet there are people using the beach well before. In other words, there was no lifeguard on duty and had Fran not been precisely at that spot and at that time, the man would have drowned.

(News: Nerja, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)