Kayaker Stranded For Hours In The Water Rescued By A Boat

What was supposed to be a nice fishing trip turned into a not-so-nice fight for life.

Davey Wright of Port St. Lucie Florida had a near-death experience when he was trapped treading the Florida waters for hours. When reaching the point of giving up hope, a boat appeared and saved his life.

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The Story

On June 27th Wright took his Kayak to Fort Pierce where he planned to catch some fish. At first, things were going great and he caught a lot of fish.

In an interview, Wright said, "I’ve been taking care of my father with dementia and things just got a little tough, so I decided to set out on a kayak trip. Packed up the kayak with my fishing rods, cooler, and fishing net and set off from Fort Pierce. Everything was going good, caught a lot of fish. I had stopped on an island to rest and had let some kids nearby play on the kayak."

Eventually, the sun began setting and he decided to head back across a "super-wide stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway." He had "about a three-and-a-half-hour paddle back." At this point, it was pitch black out and he had no lights on the kayak.

"About an hour into the trek back, the kayak starts getting heavy, and within minutes I am sitting in water. It just sunk like a rock," Wright said.

"I had all my high-dollar gear floating around me. I spent like an hour treading water, and I was running out of energy. I was getting cold. I didn’t know where I was. I started letting go of my worldly possessions. The net went first until I had absolutely nothing, so I could keep myself above water."

"I couldn’t make out anything except boat lights," said Wright. "I’d yell, but it was hard to tell how close they [the boat lights] were. There were times when I thought I could swim. But there was [shark] feeding going on all around me, and I was not sure if I could get to land."

Wright told Fox News Digital, "That’s why I decided to stay in the depth and head for the lights. It was getting to the point where my muscles [were] so fatigued. I started making peace with the idea that this is where I would die. This is where it would be."

Mentioning his faith, Wright said, "When I originally set out there, it was to pray and talk to God because things in life were just feeling harder. I remember asking him, ‘Where are you?'"

Write said he was not wearing a life jacket that night.

After hours in the water and his body becoming extremely fatigued, he said, "I just wanted to close my eyes and go to sleep. I felt delirious, semi-hypothermic."

After hours of treading water, he finally saw another boat light. He used all the energy he had left to scream as loud as he could. The boat used a searchlight to find him as it followed Wright's screams. A man on the boat spotted Wright, and he regained hope.

Said Wright, "Between the current and the wind, it took about 15 to 20 minutes until we could get lined up and he could throw me a lifeline. I eventually pulled myself onto the boat, and that’s when the other man started videotaping and asking what happened. He told me later he did that for his own safety, which I totally understood."

The man who found Wright was Thomas Korinek, a boat captain from West Palm Beach.

Captains Tom's Story

Korinek shared his story, "I was at Cocoa Beach and got going about 7 p.m., [with] a later start back to West Palm Beach. I left the dock and I was just sitting up on the upper helm around 4 a.m. when I heard someone yelling, ‘Mayday!' At first I thought it was over the radio, so I turned the radio down, and then I heard it again. I thought maybe someone had broken down. I got the spotlight and started panning around the water. And I saw this man in a brown puffy jacket in the water with his hands in the air."

He continued, "I yelled, ‘I’m coming,’ and turned and went to look for him. I was yelling but didn’t hear anything and the current was just ripping. Then I spotted him again, but he was not waving, he was just floating there. I got up next to him and grabbed the life sling and threw it to him. The whole time I was thinking, I don’t know who he is and why he is in the water."

Korinek started pulling Wright in. For his own safety, he grabbed his phone and started recording Wright, asking him what he was doing, to which Wright explained his kayak went down.

Eventually, Tom Korinek pulled the boat into the marina at Fort Pierce. The two men were then able to introduce themselves. They parted ways but eventually met up again and reminisced about the rescue. They even talked about starting a business together where they would teach people what to do if they get stranded or caught in bad situations.

The kayaker also told Fox News Digital, "I was an Airborne Ranger during [Operation] Iraqi Freedom, and I absolutely feel the magnitude of training I had is probably the sole reason I survived." Added Wright, "If you put your heart and mind to it, you can push through it."

Read More There: Fox News

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