A British sailor has been rescued after his yacht anchor failed. The 65-year-old was asleep on his yacht in Marbella at the time and only woke up after the yacht had drifted 100 miles down the coast

A sailor has been rescued after his boat ran aground 100 miles from where he had anchored it for the night.

The 65-year-old, who hasn’t been named, went to sleep on the Miss Brenda in the Costa del Sol report of Marbella in Spain.

When he woke up the next morning, he found he was close to rocks at Le Caleta beach in Cadiz – some 100 miles along the coast.

The skipper sounded the siren on his boat, which eventually ran aground on the beach.

Council workers cleaning the beach in the morning noticed the boat in distress and contacted the Spanish police, which sent out a rescue party.

The sailor was eventually helped by ashore by local firefighters before making for a nearby hotel to recover from his ordeal.

A spokesman for the local coastguards told the Daily Mail: “We were called by the Civil Guard around 5.40am yesterday (6 April 2017).”

“They were alerted by council workers cleaning La Caleta beach who spotted the yacht heading for rocks as it sounded its siren,” continued the spokesman.

“The vessel had run aground near the shore by the time we mobilised a rescue team so firefighters helped the occupant to safety in the end.”

According to the local police, the sailor told officers that he had anchored the previous night in Marbella and had woken up “disorientated” to find he had drifted down the coast, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar along the way.