Two anglers are luckly to be alive after dramatically being plucked from the sea by a lifeboat crew this morning after their boat was capsized by a wave off Reculver.

The men, one aged 74 and the other in his 60s, are thought to have been in the water clinging to their upturned craft for about two-and-a-half hours before rescuers reached them.

Their distress was spotted by a passing yacht which could not help because of a sand bank but alerted the coastguard.

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They were located by Whitstable lifeboat shortly before 9am whose helmsmen Dave Parry said: "They were both extremely cold and we wrapped in thermal blankets and took them to Neptune slipway at Herne Bay where the ambulance service and coastguard were waiting.

“It was very fortunate that we arrived when we did because given their condition, the outcome may have been very different."

The rescue was a joint operation with Margate's 'all weather' lifeboat which recovered the men's stricken boat.

Whitstable Lifeboat operations manager Mike Judge said “ These two were very lucky to survive the incident and it shows the value of people reporting what they see to the emergency services."

“It was very fortunate that we arrived when we did and given their condition the outcome may have been very different and it was fortunate that both the 'first' informant on shore and the yacht spotted and confirmed their position”.