Two boaters off the coast of B.C. have an extraordinary story to tell after surviving a boat sinking and a cougar stalking them during their bid for rescue.

The two men were out crab fishing on Saturday in a small boat in Discovery Passage, a narrow passage between Vancouver Island and Quadra Island, when their boat started sinking just before dark.

The pair had lifejackets in the boat, but weren't wearing them when the boat started taking on water, forcing them to cling to a fuel tank to stay afloat.

They were able to reach the shore, with one ditching his clothes along the way as they were pulling him down, and screamed for help at passing boats. However, none evidently heard them.

"The one guy I guess when they were swimming he had to drop his clothes just to make the beach right, so he was just sitting there with no clothes on for hours," said Ron Boucher with the Campbell River Coast Guard.

The men spent the night in nervy circumstances, with a cougar seemingly stalking them.

"They heard it behind them, in the bush behind them, so they would grab some sticks and they'd be banging the rocks trying to scare it off," Boucher said.

The Coast Guard was sent out Sunday, after the boaters failed to return home, and found the pair roughly 10 hours after their boat sunk.

The pair were taken to hospital to be treated for hypothermia and are recovering.

With a report from CTV Vancouver Island's Gord Kurbis