Video Story
Watch VideoCooler saves two fishermen after boat sinks
Story By: Bea Karnes
Source: NBC
Published Wed Jun 04, 2008, 03:26 PM MDT
Updated Thu Jun 05, 2008, 10:41 AM MDT
Two Florida men experience drama at sea when their fishing boat sank. “You know, I never thought I’d be able to see my wife, my newborn baby, my mom,” said Antonio Martin, fisherman.
Antonio Martin chokes up realizing how close he and his friend Juan Panalver came to death. “When I seen the boat go to the deep, I said, Juan you’re going to die,” exclaimed Juan.
The boat they were fishing on in the Florida Keys took on water and sank, their only saving grace a water cooler. Miraculously the two fisherman survived after clinging to the cooler, using the lid to sail as they paddled their feet several miles to shore for almost 12 hours. The cooler burned Panalver’s arm.
“He kept me going because I had came to the point where I wanted to just give up,” said Martin. Law enforcement took a picture of the two after they reached dry land in Plantation Key miles from where the ordeal had started.
“The officers thought we were rafters from Cuba and when I started talking in English they said no you guys ain’t no rafters,” explained Martin. The fisherman believe that thanks to their will to survive, their faith, and a special guardian angel they were given a second chance at life.
“My dad passed away two years ago I believe he was apart of being in my life at that moment watching over me with God,” said Martin. He will not be boating anytime soon, but not because of fear.
His twenty-three open fisherman was not insured, but he is not worried about that. He is just happy to be alive.
