Coastguards have said a man and three children were lucky to be alive after going to sea in an "ill-equipped" boat.
A rescue attempt had to be mounted late on Wednesday night, after a worried parent reported her 14-year-old son missing at about 2130 BST.
He had set off in a dinghy from Pease Bay in Berwickshire with two children, aged 10 and 15, and a 53-year-old man.
The children were found walking along a nearby road and the man was recovered by rescue workers halfway up a cliff.
The group had set off in the 6ft inflatable at about 1800 BST.
When the alarm was raised, Dunbar Coastguard Rescue team went to the scene along with RNLI lifeboats from Dunbar, St Abbs and Eyemouth.
The youngsters were found walking on the main road between Coldingham and Pease Bay.
Survival time
They told rescuers they had been out in a dinghy and that the man they had been with was unable to climb the cliff.
At the same, the St Abbs lifeboat reported that they had located the vessel on rocks and had spotted the man halfway up cliffs.
He was airlifted to the top and assessed by ambulance staff.
Rescue workers said the inflatable had a very unreliable outboard engine and defective oars.
A Coastguard spokesman said survival time in the North Sea at this time of year would have been minimal at best, even though the man was wearing a lifejacket and the youngsters had wetsuits.
He described the dinghy as ill-equipped for a trip to sea, even close to the coast, and said the incident could well have had a different outcome.
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