Cutting through the waters and chilly temperatures off Florida's Gulf coast just after sunrise early Tuesday, a trio of fishermen aboard a small boat experienced the catch of a lifetime: They spotted two 16-year-old friends who had spent the night adrift on a paddleboard waving down their rescuers from atop an oyster bar miles from shore.
The teens, identified by family and friends on social media as Eva Aponte and Avery Bryan, survived 16 hours on the water in temperatures that dipped into the low 40s. Rescuers described them as shivering cold with cuts to their hands and feet from razor-sharp oyster shells but otherwise OK.
The teens were blown off course Monday about 4:30 p.m. near the fishing village of Cedar Key by strong winds while wearing just shorts and sweatshirts with no life jackets.
As darkness fell – and temperatures dropped – so did the odds of survival. A massive search of the Gulf waters by the Coast Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, sheriffs’ offices and a fleet of volunteer civilian boats continued all night without success.
Capt. Will Pauling of Inglis, Florida, and his fellow anglers Alex Jefferies of nearby Yankeetown and Russell Coon of Clermont, near Orlando, scrapped their plans early Tuesday for a morning of snook fishing to join the search. They were on the water looking for the teens by 8:30 a.m., just after sunrise, and found them within 30 minutes.
“We tried getting out there as soon as we could, and it paid off,” Pauling said in a phone interview.
Jeffries said he told the teens after their rescue, “You laugh about this one day, just not today.”
The teens and their families didn’t immediately respond to phone messages Tuesday to discuss their ordeal.
Winds pushed the teens off course returning from Atsena Otie Key, an historic and uninhabited island town of abandoned buildings about a half mile from Cedar Key, across a shipping channel. The paddle is popular and usually safe when tides are favorable and winds are mild, generally below 5 mph. Monday’s winds were gusting more than twice as strong.
It wasn’t clear initially where the teens may have drifted. Tides and current could have pushed the teens into the Gulf, further from shore. It turned out, their inflatable paddleboard had acted like a sail and was pushed by winds southeast across Waccasassa Bay toward Mangrove Point, off the coast of Yankeetown, about 15 miles away.
“It was an inflatable object. It's treated more like a balloon,” said Cap. Gary Bartell Jr. of Crystal River, who spent the night searching for the teens. He picked them up in his airboat from Pauling’s small boat.
A photo shows the rescuers carrying the wayward teens – who were too weak to stand – over their shoulders across an oyster bar toward the airboat. On board, Bartell and his 8-year-old son, Brody, gave the girls snacks and the coats off their backs. Bartell then delivered them to their families and officials at Waccasassa Bay Preserve State Park.
“They had a great spirit for two young ladies that were stranded in the middle of the night, that
had drifted 15 miles from their original location, especially in those high winds that we had last night,” Bartell said.
Sue Colson, the mayor of picturesque Cedar Key, said the Gulf waters can be more dangerous than they look.
“We look so picture card perfect, and just slick and pretty,” Colson said. “You just don't feel in danger here, which is a great thing to feel by the way.”
This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at diego.perdomo@ufl.edu. v