Stranded boaters relied on faith to get through 20 hours at sea
Rescued boaters leaned on faith while stranded
Two of the rescued boaters are back home and they share their experiences as the other two men remain in the hospital.
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Two men are now back home after surviving 20 hours at sea, stranded on a boat. Cris Harding, Sr., 42, and Cris Harding, Jr., 18, were on a fishing trip with two other men when their boat filled with water and capsized.
Courtesy: Clearwater Police Department
Meanwhile. Dennis Woods, 70, will likely get released on Thanksgiving after dealing with dehydration and stress, while Clarence Woods, 90, will have to spend a few more days at the hospital.
What they're saying:
Thanksgiving will mean a lot more to this family this year after a dangerous night on the water.
"We are just happy to have survived," Dennis Woods said.
The backstory:
Woods was celebrating his birthday on a fishing tip with the three other men and everything was going smoothly.
"It started out great, it really did," Cris Harding, Sr. said. "We were catching some big fish, we caught a shark."
But things took a turn quickly.
"Everything was perfect, it was beautiful," Harding, Sr. explained. "Everything went wrong so fast."
They said the water started filling the boat fast. Woods added, "By the time we realized we had so much water in the boat, I started getting the pumps pumping, and water came back into the boat."
Woods believes his livewell system had a problem. That's where they keep bait and fish alive by circulating and aerating water.
"There's a drain that comes out of it, and we can't see the drain," he explained. "It filled up and should have been draining out of the boat."
"I started saying grab the life jackets and get ready," Harding, Sr. said. "We're going over."
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Into The Water:
The boat flipped, starting a 20-hour journey to stay alive.
Harding, Sr. said, "The waves wouldn't stop all night, pounding us. It was crazy.
"Once night set in, waves picked up and the waves were crashing from one side and the other side," Woods remembered. "There's nothing to do but stay on the boat."
All the men were worried about 90-year-old Clarence.
"He was getting weak, and I knew he was losing body heat," Woods said. "I was trying to stay close to him to hold him up, give him some of my body heat."
The Rescue:
As the sun started to rise, so did hope.
Courtesy: U.S. Coast Guard
"When the plane came, both of them started hollering. We're saved, we're saved," Woods said.
The plane threw its flare, signaling they were found. Then the Coast Guard arrived thirty minutes later. All the men called it emotional.
Then a short time later, when they got back to shore, their family was waiting with hugs and smiles.
"Emotional just trying to hold it in," Harding, Sr. explained.
Courtesy: Clearwater Police Department
During the whole experience, the men never lost their faith. They knew even when life gets rough like the waves, they're always protected.
"I live by the belief that God knows everything," Woods said. "God knows our end from our beginning and anything that happens to us, he allows to happen, and he has a plan."
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What's next:
Woods explained he's still going to go fishing, but it won't be with his own boat out in the Gulf.
All the men cannot wait to give a proper thank you to the men and women who saved their lives.
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The Source: FOX 13 gathered the information for this story from the three men who were rescued by the Coast Guard after spending twenty hours stranded at sea.