Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Joe was a really smashing bloke’
Stuart Davies, a councillor for Denbighshire County Council in North Wales, was a neighbour of 71-year-old Joseph Williams at Acaidesa Marina in La Linea.
Mr Williams’ body was recovered from the water around noon on Sunday.
An investigation was launched following the discovery, with an autopsy revealing he died by drowning.
Mr Davies’ boat has been moored next to the Talal — Mr Williams’ 38ft yacht — since August.
Paying tribute to Mr Williams, he said: “Joe was a really smashing bloke — dry but really funny. I just can’t believe it.
“When we first arrived he wasn’t here as he found the Spanish summer too hot and he went back to Scotland.
“But we did finally meet him about a month later and he was such a great guy — he was a font of all knowledge. We would talk every day.
“It was mostly small talk but I knew he had a daughter. He talked about her.
“She had bought him a smartphone so he could stay in touch but I’m not sure he could use it very well.
“He was struggling to get internet access on his boat from the marina.”
Mr Williams was originally from Dundee but was understood to have family in St Andrews.
Mr Davies added: “Joe liked to get up early and work on his boat.
“I could often hear him sanding his boat in the mornings.
“It’s very sad to see something like this happening.”
Mr Davies said the security guards at the marina were good and patrolled every six hours.
He added: “We hear them going past the boat at night.
“There is CCTV pointing down the length of the pontoon and we have noticed that if they spot something out of the ordinary they are there like a shot.
“It’s just very sad this tragedy has happened despite that.”
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said it was providing support to Mr Williams’ family.
The marina — which only opened in 2015 — has declined to comment while police continue their investigation.
La Linea is said to be an area popular with the British expat community.
TRIBUTES have been paid to a Dundee man who was found dead in a Spanish marina.