re: ten hours at sea alone

The kid treaded water for 10 hours? (including floating on back)

That's incredible

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bigger story imo

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For real. First he gets lost at sea then his Dad was impaled by a spear.

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...and then his sister has a mental breakdown, and buries her baby in the cold Montana wilderness and it somehow survives for 9 hours.

Luck runs deep in that family.

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When I was 19 in the 80s it was impossible to go missing for 10 hours.

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What?

True story, short version. In college in NOLA 1986ish, friend buys catamaran. Neither of us ever sailed. Go on lake P, afternoon storm tips the fricking thing over. Float on the "bottom" of that thing till about 7am the next morning. Fishing boat radios the coast guard, they fish is off the thing and tow us in.

No life jackets, keys etc all floated away...it sucked for awhile...but great story to tell...sometimes

I was in NC a few weeks ago, awful damn close to GA!

How often do you fly for the airlines? What route do you fly? Plane?

As little as possible, usually Asia or Europe, 777

You mean there’s something other than first?

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I found this odd. land was close enough to be visible but he found motivation in seeing a coast guard ship? Were the lights on the ship so beautiful that he was inspired to continue living on?

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My best guess is that when he was initially pulled out to sea, he had to make a decision between a) attempting to swim back to shore and risking exhaustion and b) save energy by staying put and hoping a boat eventually comes close enough to see/hear him.

He decided to stay put. But after waiting for half-a-day, he decided "frick it, I'm gonna die fighting."

I'm guessing the boat lights "motivated" him in the sense that they made him realize that if he was going to be rescued, if was going to have to work for it.

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The teenager ended up spending nearly 10 hours alone in the ocean as the U.S. Coast Guard and his family frantically searched for him. When he got tired, he said he would float on his back.

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Keep in mind that when they he spent 10 hours in the ocean, that probably includes the time he spent swimming back. For someone who doesn't train for endurance swimming, even swimming a mile takes a long-arse time.

I would guess he probably stayed put for five or six hours, and then spent four or five slowly swimming back.

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thank god for god. he wouldn't have talked to him all night the coast guard would have never found him.

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Did he thank him for washing him out to sea to begin with?

Reminds me of this scene with Burt Reynolds from "The End" where he's making promises to God when he thinks he's going to drown. Until he sees he'll make it after all and starts taking them back. "I know it was you that saved me, but it was also you that made me sick!"

Final Scene "The End"

why the frick was he out in the ocean after dark.....