A jet skier found a dead body floating in the sea.
Jason Thorne has had trouble sleeping since his grim discovery, half a mile from Worthing Pier, on Sunday.
The stunned 32-year-old called Shoreham lifeboat crews, who recovered the body of a man in his 60s.
Mr Thorne said: “It was such a beautiful day, absolutely perfect.
“Me and my dad had jet-skied over to Brighton and were on our way back to Worthing when I saw something that didn’t look right bobbing up and down in the water.
“I went over to take a look and I realised it was a man.
"It was so shocking."
Leaving his father with the body, Mr Thorne raced back to the pier and alerted a fisherman, who called the police.
Within minutes a helicopter and lifeboat were scrambled to the scene.
Mr Thorne and his father Colin, 55, have hardly slept since their traumatic discovery.
Mr Thorne said: “It’s been playing on our minds and we can’t get it out of our system. It was a lovely day but it turned into a nightmare.”
A spokeswoman for Shoreham RNLI said: “The body of a man recovered by the crew before being transferred to the all-weather lifeboat and taken back to the lifeboat station.
“The body was then transferred to the police and coroner’s officer who were waiting at the boathouse.” A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said the man had not yet been identified.
The circumstances around his death are still unknown, although officers do not believe the incident is suspicious.
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