Kevin McGonigle thought he was a goner as he treaded water in Georgia Strait clad in nothing more than a T-shirt, a sweater and pajama bottoms.

McGonigle lasted an incredible 70 minutes in the frigid sea before he was rescued by a fishboat.

The 49-year-old captain of the tugboat Regent, owned by Humphries Tug & Barge of Campbell River, has worked on tugs for 20 years but never thought he’d die doing what he loved.

On Tuesday, however, he stepped outside to urinate and stumbled, falling overboard.

“I lost my balance and the next thing I knew, I was in the sea,” he said yesterday.

The tug was on its way back to Campbell River from Vancouver, where it had delivered a log boom.

The other two crewmen didn’t realize McGonigle was gone until 25 minutes later. McGonigle was suddenly floating in 8°C water, the cold numbing his limbs and creeping into his core.

It took a moment to realize what had happened, then McGonigle summed up his predicament in a word: “Shit!”

He was in Georgia Strait 3.5 nautical miles south of Cape Mudge. “It felt terrible. Watching the boat disappear was the worst.”

McGonigle has lost fellow mariners to the sea over the years and knew his chances of survival were slim. “I tried not to panic. I tried to tread water and passed out a couple of times.”

The tugboat crew called in a mayday at 1 p.m., said Dennis Kimoto, marine controller at the Victoria Joint Rescue Communication Centre.

Mariners in the area were alerted by radio to join in the search. A coast guard vessel was dispatched from Port Hardy and a Cormorant helicopter was sent from Chilliwack.

McGonigle knew boats were looking for him, but couldn’t raise his arms to wave because of the cold. “My arms, I couldn’t move my arms.”

McGonigle figures he didn’t have much longer to live when the 86-foot troller Pacific Faith located him after 20 minutes of searching.

He was close to unconscious, but McGonigle has the image of his rescue vessel etched in his memory: “I remember looking up at that word ‘Faith.’ I remember that vividly.”

McGonigle said he was once religious, “but I haven’t been practising much lately.”

He was taken to hospital, where he was reunited with his crew: “We just hugged. I feel sorry for them, actually. It was just a freak thing that happened.

“It’s nobody’s fault.”

He hopes mariners become more aware of their mates when there’s someone out on deck. Electronic devices are available that can send out an alert if a crew member is separated from the boat, he said.

The experience gave McGonigle plenty of time to contemplate how he had lived his life.

“There were things I wanted to change for sure,” he said, declining to elaborate.

Kimoto said McGonigle was in pretty good shape considering the amount of time he was in the water. “If he would have fallen overboard at night, it would have been a totally different story.”

smcculloch@tc.canwest.com