Dean Brodley has been spearfishing for 25 years, but he’s never seen anything like this. While out in the Gulf on Sunday with his friend Brandon Phillips, Phillips’ girlfriend and another friend, he came across what the group first thought may have been a buoy in the water.
“We met down at Carrabelle early, loaded up with ice and everything. We were out and about, hitting several dive spots,” said Phillips. “We were coming back in and were going to hit one more dive spot when I saw something I didn’t recognize.”
“He spotted what looked like a buoy, just floating. And on a whim, we headed in that direction just to see what it was,” Brodley said. “About halfway to them, we could see them splashing.”
Instead of a buoy, they discovered four exhausted men clinging to an Igloo cooler.
The men were 23 miles offshore and had been holding on for dear life since about 8am – they were found by Brodley and his friends at 4pm.
“As we got closer, we saw it was people in the water, splashing, waving their hands, yelling and shouting,” Phillips said.
They quickly pulled the men aboard their 28-foot powerboat.
It’s a miracle these men were found at all, they had already seen several boats pass by that day that couldn’t see them.
With no life vest, radio or distress signal, they were fortunate to be found, especially since dark was approaching in a few hours.
The men had been on a 23-footer that sank shortly after they left that morning. They believe a crack in the hull was the cause of their stranding.
After getting some water and rehydrating, the rescued men even told their rescuers they could continue with their fishing trip.
“The funniest thing that was said all day was by the boat’s owner, who was about 65,” Brodley said. “As we were headed into shore, he said ‘The cooler paid for itself today.’”
For Brodley and his friend’s help, the fishermen gave them three cases of beer as a parting gift.
