No more fishing trips for you, Dad

The Warilla High School student was speechless when he finally laid eyes on his father, Josif, after he'd been flown to Wollongong Hospital on Sunday.

Jamie, 17, had a sleepless Saturday night and spent most of Sunday thinking his father had drowned.

"I didn't say anything when I saw him. I just sat there. I was pretty happy.

"But I felt like smacking him out," he said.

"He won't be doing that again, no way. Never again on a boat like that, 14km out."

Mr Necovski, 45, and Troy Veljanovski, 40, of Warilla, were found clinging to their overturned boat at 2.15pm on Sunday, about five nautical miles east of Burrill Lake, near Ulladulla.

They had set out from Kiama at 4am on Saturday, and capsized at 11am. They were rescued from their 27-hour-ordeal by deep-sea fisherman Rocky Pirello.

Jamie started worrying when his father didn't return at 2pm on Saturday as promised.

He waited a few hours, but as the skies darkened he contacted his cousin, who called the coastguard.

The full-scale search didn't start until the morning, but Jamie kept an all-night vigil and began to fear the worst.

"It's just me and my dad at home. I was freaked out. I had a soccer game the next morning but I couldn't play. I was too depressed."

Jamie often joins his dad on fishing trips but not this time, because Josef's mate's boat was only big enough for two people, and he didn't know the others in the two boats accompanying them out to sea.

"Their boat capsized as they were leaving to come back in," he said. "They held on to part of the boat."

A major search and rescue operation was undertaken to try to find the pair, who had not alerted authorities of their whereabouts.