Note: This excerpt includes two segments from the one-hour, six-segment special.

Coast Guard: Survivors

Cell	Audio
95	VO At Bradenton Beach, Florida, on a beautiful Sunday in May, friends John Kloss, Deborah Woods, and Sue Klein set out in John's 18-foot catamaran for a 10-minute outing in the Gulf of Mexico. The ocean is fairly calm, but the winds soon reach 20 knots.
96	John Then the waves picked it up, and then the wind was strong enough just to tip the boat over.
97	Sue I didn't quite understand what was going on. We tried to right the boat for a long time. And then we saw the mast slowly drift out, and it starts sticking up right by the boat.
98	VO The catamaran is five miles from shore, in relatively shallow water, and its 30-foot mast has caught in the sand on the ocean floor—causing it to snap as the heavy winds buffet the catamaran above. But the threesome is close to shore and unworried; perched on the hull of the craft, they plan an evening of dinner and dancing.
99	John The first day, the first day we really...I mean all of us thought we were going to get drifted right back to shore. Deborah And we could see land. And you could see land, and we were getting close. I mean, real close.
100	VO But the wind pushes the overturned catamaran further out to sea. As night falls, the wind and waves begin to rage, and John, Deborah, and Sue have only two life jackets among them, and a sail to wrap around themselves for warmth and protection.
101	Sue So it was more of...you stayed almost covered completely at night, just try to stay out of the wind. 'Cause the wind was so bad, it was ripping the sail out of our hands. I even sprained my hand. John She couldn't hold it anymore. Sue I said, "It's shot, I can't do anything. You're going to have to hold it together." Because it was ripping out of my hand, and my hand swelled up and...so it was useless. That's how strong it was out there. It wasn't like this pretty picture you see. It was...it's nothing that you can ever imagine. As soon as the sun starts to set...the wind would start ripping across the water. The...all the water just, just starts to rise.
102	Sue You couldn't sleep because we had to grip so hard to stay in that catamaran. So we had nothing to hang onto. All we were doing is gripping with our fingernails and toes.
103	VO The three survivors must maintain the boat's precarious balance to keep their own. Even shifting positions could upset the catamaran, causing it to take on more water...or sink.
104	Sue I was trying to grip so, so hard that by the next day, I couldn't walk at all. I could not walk. My muscles were shot. And I dance a lot. I mean, my legs are my strength, and I couldn't walk. She couldn't walk either. We're just trying to get down...yeah, we were trying to get down just to even kneel. Just for some relief. But if we had to kneel, we were in that water... Deborah And it was so cold.
105	Sue Just to kneel was shaking on top of shaking. All we did is shake for three days straight. We just shivered like this.
106	VO Nearly delirious with fatigue, they begin their second night on the water—a night colder than the last.
107	Deborah We didn't like it when night came. We looked forward to the day 'cause at least we knew day, boats were out, people would look for us. At night it was depressing because nobody would see us; nobody would find us; it was cold; it was wet; we were submerged in water.
108	Mike (Coast Guard) Bradenton Beach Police Department called up and they said they had a Hobie Cat trailer and a car on the beach with some personal belongings—a couple of chairs out to the side. That was the second night the car was out there with nobody around it. They called up thinking that somebody might have been out in the Gulf of Mexico. We found out the mother had got in contact with the police department, we knew who the owner was and we tried to call his work and the passenger's work. We were not able to find either one of them. They hadn't been at work for two days.
109	Tom (Coast Guard) We took the weather reports from the previous three or four days, took a look at the winds and currents in the area, and used our computer-aided search planning program to draw up a search plan for these three individuals and their capsized catamaran.
110	VO The survivors, meanwhile, find there is more to endure than the elements alone.
111	Sue Can I tell them what the worst part of it was, besides the cold? It was...you couldn't even imagine. Here we are out in the middle of nowhere, you can't see anything, and all of sudden you're in a swarm of love bugs... Deborah And we have love bugs just like covered...John's real calm. He's covered from head to toe... Sue He's all black, black in bugs.
112	Deborah You just couldn't even comprehend. 'Cause they crawl, when they get on you, they crawl in your ear; they crawl in your hair; we had them in our nose.
113	Deborah We knew the Coast Guard would look for us; we knew that somebody would report us missing.
114	John Yeah, but they...we were thinking eventually miss us five, six days down the road. Deborah Right. Now, that's true. We did think it might be longer than what it was.
115	John That was probably the depressing part of the whole thing... Where boats would get close enough where you think they would see us.
116	VO The next day, the Coast Guard launches a helicopter out of Air Station Clearwater to search for the capsized catamaran.
117	Glen (Coast Guard) We flew the search pattern that we were assigned on the first leg of the search, we sighted a...what looked like an overturned catamaran or a Hobie Cat and flew over, and all three of them were sitting on the hull of the vessel as it was flipped upside down.
118	Sue You have to realize that we're...we haven't been sleeping, so we're sort of in that la-la land. And then we hear the engine, and someone says, "I hear something." And I'm think... Deborah I hear motors...so I said, "The helicopter." Sue And I'm thinking the whole time, "Oh, it's her hunger pains." Deborah That's just it, you hear things. Not only do you see things at night, but we were hearing things. So we had made an agreement that if we heard a noise and we looked at each other, then we knew we were hearing the same noise, so then we could do something. And that's what happened; I heard an engine and I looked at John, he looked at me, and he went, "It's a helicopter." And I remember that was...I threw the tarp off and I went, "Where?" And John starts scanning and he says, "It's there."
119	Josh (Coast Guard) So...immediately the pilot started talking on the radio, telling Group St. Petersburg that, you know, we found the people, there's three people onboard, and they all look like they're okay. And I started getting out of my seat and started putting on my rescue swimmer stuff to get in the water to go get 'em.
120	Josh (Coast Guard) As soon soon as I got up to the boat, they all kind of rushed the side. They asked me if I had any food right away.
121	Josh (Coast Guard) So I towed the two females back to the helicopter first, one at a time, and I went back for the guy. And he helped out a lot. I was a little nervous because he didn't have a life jacket on, but he helped...he helped out a lot, getting back to the helicopter, you know, swimming.
122	VO The Coast Guard helo flies the survivors to the hospital, where they are treated for exposure and dehydration.
123	Tom (Coast Guard) And, ah, really pretty miraculous. I don't think people realize how dangerous it is when they go out there.
124	Tom (Coast Guard) The one thing they did that was to their credit was that they had their life jackets on and they stayed with the catamaran when it capsized. You always stay with your boat or with the debris if something happens to you when you're boating...'cause it's a lot easier to find a capsized 18-foot catamaran than it is to find a person in the water.
125	Tom (Coast Guard) This is where they left, here, Bradenton Beach, and then we located them down here, about 22 miles southwest of Ana Maria Island.
126	Sue They were wonderful. They were very polite, they're just very professional, very professional. And I have to say this, I have to say this, directly—they were gorgeous. I thought I was going to die on the boat. I died when I saw their faces. Oh! Thank you. Thank you.
127	Deborah That is the most wonderful feeling in the world to realize you're not sitting out there being cold anymore; and you're not living with that question mark, what's going to happen. Instead, you're alive; you're back home; you're with your family, your friends. There's...there's nothing any better.
128	Tom (Coast Guard) Oh, that made us feel real good you know, because we really really felt that we weren't going to find anybody alive. We felt that they had been missing for three days and we really had a feeling we were going to find a boat with nobody on it. And to do all that work and actually have it work out, that the people are alive, made us all feel real good.
129	VO Finding land is the desperate wish of anyone lost at sea...solid ground...shelter...food and water. But sometimes land can be almost as uninhabitable for man as the ocean itself...
130	VO Longtime friends and fishermen Jack Sowell and Randy Humphrey begin their weekly fishing trip at 5:00 a.m., heading out from Los Angeles in Jack's 20-foot pleasure craft, the Rock Hopper. They plan to stop at some favorite fishing spots close to deserted Santa Barbara Island.
131	Jack We got to Santa Barbara, it was a nice, slick, glassy day, and we fished the front side of the island along the ranger station for Calico Bass—just had a fantastic day.
132	Jack And we took a break and ate lunch. I was walking to the back of the boat, and I just...I heard the roar of the wave, and I...I don't really remember even seeing it. And I was...we just went down and over at that point. Ah...the boat rolled, and I was in the boat. I don't know how long, but it seemed like an awful long time, and when I finally did get clear, I don't remem...I don't even remember the boat, I just...I broke free and I was in the foamy water, and the minute I came up, I got hit again and turned over and I was in really bad trouble, 'cause I had...I had drank a lot of water already.
133	Jack And when I come the second time, I was able to get some air and I had a little clean spot, and I was able to see the next waves coming at me and I ducked underneath them. I immediately, then, was panicked about Randy, so I, I swam out to the buoy line and I looked and I, I couldn't find Randy. And I knew I was in trouble.
134	VO Santa Barbara Island is like a fortress: 300-foot vertical cliffs rise out of the water...and where there are no cliffs, the shoreline is fortified by sharp rocks and sea urchins. There are only a few points on the island where a swimmer can safely get to land.
135	Jack I knew the only place that I could get ashore was west or north, and there's just a small opening there where there's a rocky ledge and a small gravel beach. And I figured that's the only place I'm going to make it. So I started out, once I got outside the surf area, working my way north.
136	VO But Jack is losing energy, and his legs begin to cramp up. Realizing his strength will give out before he can reach the gravel beach, he swims toward a rocky embankment. Though the heavy surf threatens to pound him against the rocks, or sweep him further out to sea, Jack has no other choice.
137	Jack I got a death grip on those rocks and just as the next wave washed out, I held on; I was able to climb up a little farther on the next one, push me up over the top, where I crawled up over the top and, was out of the water and realized, you know, I made it, you know—I might spend the night here, but I was out.
138	VO The sun touches the horizon. Jack has spent nearly four hours struggling against the waves.
139	Shirley (Jack's wife) It was past dark and I was getting very worried. And I called Randy's wife, Jill, and she was very worried, and she just had this bad feeling. And we kept talking and finally about seven o'clock, we thought, you know, something is really wrong, so we called the Coast Guard.
140	VO The Coast Guard sends a cutter and helicopter out of Air Station Los Angeles to search for the missing fishermen. The weather is erratic and the seas are heavy, and Santa Barbara Island is shrouded in fog.
141	Mike (Coast Guard) We got there about midnight. There's a small cove outside of Santa Barbara Island we pulled into; talked to a couple of fishing boats that had been anchored in the cove for the night to ride out the weather. One of the guys we talked to said that he had seen the boat about 4:00 in the afternoon, fishing on the other side of the island, with two gentlemen in it. They hadn't seen it since.
142	Mike (Coast Guard) We proceeded to search around the island, but due to the weather and the visibility and the rough terrain of the island, we weren't able to get in close to actually see anything on the island. So basically we conducted a radar search of the outer perimeter of the island to see if we saw any contacts. A helicopter also launched and due to visibility, they were not able to complete a really productive search. So it was determined that we would pick up the search again on first light.
143	Shirley (Jack's wife) I asked them if they would keep me on, you know, aware of everything that was going on, and they said they would talk to me all night if that was what I wanted. And at 3:15, they called me and they said they were bringing the chopper back because of the fog. And they said they would be out there, the very first thing, as soon as daylight came.
144	Mike (Coast Guard) It was really impossible and kind of frustrating at that point, to know that there might be somebody there and not be able to productively search for them.
145	VO Jack crawls farther up the cliff, searching for a place out of reach of the surf. Wearing nothing but a soaked t-shirt and pair of sweatpants, he clears away a patch of rocks and settles down to wait out the night.
146	Jack I...picked the sea urchins out of me—I had them purple things everywhere, they were stuck on my knees and my arms.
147	Jack I sang "Jingle Bells"; I sang every song that I ever knew. And when I got really cold, I...I was all huddled up, I'd do these dynamic tension things—I'd tighten my body up, you know, and do reps until I got exhausted, but it got you to where you weren't shaking and shivering so bad.
148	VO Jack is cold, hungry, and without shelter—but not alone. A herd of sea lions claims the rocky shoreline, and Jack is an unwelcome visitor in their territory.
149	Jack The seals, the pups and the females are really...they just move out of your way, but I had a couple of big ones that, ah, they are very obnoxious and I had to bounce some rocks off those guys. And they'd just bellow at you, and I was really panicked in the dark that, you know, one would come up there and shake me like a rag doll. But at night, I'd just, when I'd hear them, you could almost smell them, they'd really growl and bellow and I'd pitch a couple of rocks down there in the dark, so they didn't bother me. But I was really scared of the seals. And I'd doze off and on at night and I'd wake up and I'd stretch my head out to sea and all at once I'd see these little eyes looking at me.
150	Jack Finally, I dropped off and when I woke up, I could see the rocks around me and I knew it was daylight, and I was really happy to see the sun come up.
151	VO At sunrise the crew of the Coast Guard cutter Pt. Stuart resumes the search for Jack Sowell and Randy Humphrey. Aided by on-board navigation systems, the crew guides the ship along the shoreline, attempting to get as close to the island as possible.
152	Mark (Coast Guard) We got about 500 yards from where the survivor was located. He was standing in the rocks, not on the rocks, so it was actually a very small target that we were looking at. It was hard to see him, and he had grabbed a white shirt that he'd been wearing, and waved that. So we were able to spot him.
153	Mark (Coast Guard) The situation that we were faced in rescuing the survivor was not what you'd call a textbook situation. Ideally, if someone's on a beach somewhere, you don't rescue them by a ship, you use a helicopter.
154	Mark (Coast Guard) The winds were also setting right onto the island, and the cliff was quite sheer, and about 300 feet straight up. So this appeared to me to exceed what I could expect the helicopter to be able to do. Also we had not been able to communicate directly with the survivor. We weren't really sure of what his medical condition was.
155	VO The Coast Guard decides to send their rescue swimmer to bring Jack back out through the water and get him safely aboard the cutter. Rescue Swimmer Francisco Negrete enters the unpredictable currents, carrying a survival suit for Jack.
156	Francisco (Coast Guard) When I got to the rocks I was like hey, this is pretty big surf breaking here. And then I had to sit there and wait a few minutes for a set to go down. And once I had the chance I went up, and then I was going up another big set came up of rogue waves and pretty much knocked me down.
157	Jack Then they come back with a swimmer and I worked my way down to the beach, and a young man come in through the surf.
158	Francisco (Coast Guard) When I arrived on scene onto the beach I had asked him, you know, "Where's the rest of your crew?" And he said, "My friend." I said, "Okay, well where's he at?" And he told me that "he's gone." And as soon as I saw that...I looked in his face and I could tell that...that he pretty much knew what had happened to his friend.
159	Jack I knew Randy was gone when I come up; Randy wasn't a real strong swimmer. I saw him, I knew the minute we went over, I knew he was gone and I knew there was nothing I could do.
160	Jack I tried to cry and I couldn't. I was, I was so, you know...that self-preservation mode, you know you're, you're in shock and there's nothing you can do. It was, it was really tough.
161	Mike (Coast Guard) I've been an EMT for about eight years in the Coast Guard and I was very surprised at his condition. He was in surprisingly good shape for his age and the amount of time and exposure he had to the elements. He was full of energy and ready to go. He was ready to come help us continue our search.
162	VO The Coast Guard continues to survey the area for Randy Humphrey. Soon after, they find him, face down in the kelp beds. Careful to spare Jack further trauma, the crew recovers Randy's body and transports it to the cutter, making sure Randy is safely out of sight before transporting Jack to the helo. The Coast Guard takes Jack to the hospital, where he is greeted by his wife and daughters, and treated for hypothermia and minor wounds.
163	Jack I had some infection in my lungs and I had a lot of little festery spots and scabs and bruises, but they all went away and I came out of it great.
164	VO Grateful for life and health, but forever changed by his ordeal at sea, Jack has learned hard lessons, and will always grieve for his fishing partner and friend.
165	Jack It's the calm days like we had that get you. You know, if it had been nasty and crappy, we'd've been watching what we were doing and been more aware.
166	Jack I didn't have a chance to jump. I didn't even remember seeing the wave. So all the gear I had aboard was useless because it wasn't...we didn't have it on.
167	Jack I've always been careful in the past, but accidents happen. And this is a really bad one; I've lost a really good friend.

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