No aid, no government - just a rusty fishing boat to flee Cyclone Idai carnage in Mozambique

We spotted a rusty-looking fishing boat fighting against the tide near Mozambique's port city of Beira.

The vessel was called the "Sesimbra" and it had nearly finished a long trip down river.

But the captain and his crew were not on a fishing expedition. Instead, they were busy saving people's lives.

The deck was packed with residents from Busi - a town that's been badly damaged by the floods - and these reluctant passengers had almost reached the relative safety of Beira beach.

The captain slid the vessel on a steep stretch of sand and the crew began to unload the passengers. Dozens of babies and young children went first.

Many were sick after going days without food and clean water, and their parents were anxious and desperately tired.

One young mother called Louisa Mera told us she had lost everything she owned to Cyclone Idai and five days of torrential rain which followed it.

"The river overflowed and broke up our houses and our pots and plates flowed away," she said. The place where we were living has gone with the water."

We climbed up on deck as the evacuees inched their way down a mangled metal ladder and we found a man worrying about the people he'd left behind.

Fernanda Bernard said there are thousands in Busi still stranded on the rooftops.

"It was a difficult experience, many people still need help. They're living on the tops of their houses, like I was. By the grace of God I survived."

There was nobody from the government - or the aid agencies - to meet them on Beira's beach and the rescue was performed by volunteers.

We spoke to Adam Suliman, the Sesimbra's humble captain, and he proved a man of action and few words.

"Why did you feel like you had to help them?" I asked.

"We are human beings, that's why we're doing it."

"But you could be making money, catching fish," I replied.

"We must put people's lives ahead of money," said the captain - and that was it.

We watched as hundreds of evacuees left the beach in Beira, in search of food and clean water. They had put their worldly possessions in plastic tubs and hoisted them on their heads.

One woman, called Amelia Amad, told me she had no idea what she was going to do.

"We have no plan, we really don't know where to go. The only things we own are in these buckets."