Posted on 07/14/2018 5:06:40 AM PDT by BBell
T. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. - A 19-year-old spent nearly 10 hours in the ocean fighting for his life.
“Worst vacation ever, but also my most exciting ever,” said Blake Spataro.
But it’s the kind of excitement we’d all like to avoid.
“I was out there sitting by the shore when a rip tide washes me straight into the ocean,” he said.
The teen was stranded in the ocean for nearly 10 hours.
“I didn’t want to die out there. I was talking to God the entire night,” Spataro said.
He screamed for help, but no one heard him over the waves and wind. He said he continued to get pulled out to sea Tuesday night.
“I wanted to live, I wanted to live, I was too young to die and I didn’t want it to end there,” said Spataro.
For hours, the U.S. Coast Guard searched in the sky and by boat, along with multiple agencies. Spataro’s father, Kirk, spent all night walking up and down the beach, desperate to find his son.
“I was screaming, I was hollering, I was looking,” Kirk Spataro said.
Throughout the night, the 19-year-old did his best to stay calm.
“Whenever I was tired I floated on my back,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at actionnewsjax.com ...
I learned this as a kid at a YMCA summer camp. They made everyone demonstrate mastery.
We called that the Dead Man’s Float when I was a kid. Did not know it’s utility as a life preserving technique.
I was caught in a rip tide swimming alone off of an empty Long Island beach when I was in my 20s and a strong swimmer. I was able to swim out if it in a few minutes by swimming parallel to the shore but it was not a good feeling and it was the last time I ever swam or ever will swim alone.
The Gulf Stream runs right up the east coast to Cape Hatteras where it collides with the Labrador Current and veers out to sea. I can assure you that the ocean at east coast beaches from southern Hatteras Island all the way down is like bathwater in summer also. Above Hatteras the temps begin dropping off fairly rapidly. Southern Hatteras Island can have ocean temps of 84, with the northern OBX Currituck Banks just below the VA border barely cracking 70. Interesting to see the change in the plant life from south to north also. Palmettos, Spanish moss and such south, sand oak and bayberry north. Get far back enough from the sea breeze and the sounds moderate the climate so Spanish moss again about a mile in. All sorts of interesting microclimates, reminds me of some parts of CA just flatter and more sandy.
I can float on my back forever and float straight up with minimal effort (fresh water or pool). In salt water I could get a full night’s sleep.
My grandfather’s merchant ship was sunk by torpedo in WWI and he backfloated for many hours in oil fouled water until rescued. He could not swim.
I was indirectly referring to the differences in water temperature ...
Everyone here so far missed on how to survive a rip tide.
You don’t swim against it. You calmly swim parallel to shore until you reach a spot where the rip tide is is no longer pushing you out. Then you calmly swim back to shore.
Wave hitting shore are a zero sum game. For every rip tide pulling water out, there is a tide pushing water in. You just have to calmly find the tide going in.
What’s that supposed to mean?
Any wonder why it took so long to find him? Stupid writer of words.
You can live for 10 hours or more in 72 degree water, but only for 10 minutes or so in 37 degree water ...
That's what you think. I've personally witnessed riptides that were over 100 yards wide.
Still, 100 yards can be escaped.
Yikes! They’re welcome to it, I’ll pass.
Glad to hear it, it should be more widely taught.
A couple of things:
a teammate in college died fighting a riptide in Panama City on spring break. The worst part was he was from Ocean City and should have known how to deal with it. But I’m pretty sure he was drunk.
as a young teenager, my dad and I came up from dives TWICE in the FL Keys (we lived close) to find our boat gone.
The first time wasn’t very scary. We were maybe 4-5 miles out and there were no other boats around when we came up. Another diver was leaving and thought it was strange our boat was drifting during a dive. He circled back to check on the boat and decided to head back to the reef. It was good luck, but we would have ditched dive gear and made it to shore
The second time was far more terrifying. We were at a reef called Elliot key which is outside of the biscayne bay islands. That is a log ride from any ramp. Bad weather. 6 foot seas. 60+ foot deep dive. Dad goes up 15 minutes in to get a bearing on the boat and it was gone. His girl was sleeping in the “cabin”.
We had to wait until the crest of each wave to see the bot in the distance. He said we were going to swim after it. I said no way in hell. I wanted to swim the 1/2 mile to the light tower. He was adamant. By then I was 16 and stood my ground. I said the boat was getting pushed by the wind against the current and we would die trying. I just started swimming. He had to make a choice. Crappy day for him.
Anyway — that day was one of the few were we had a dive flag towed, only because the girl was in the boat. At the crest of a wave I saw a sailboat 1 mile away towards the deep blue. I started waving it at the crest of every wave.
He saw us and turned towards us. That boat had a 70 year old man, out sailing alone in 6+ foot seas. He didn’t have a ladder. He waited until his boat was at the trough of a wave and yanked us each out of the water by our tank valves.... while hanging onto something else with his other hand.
If I could go back in time I would like to see the scene again.
There are few moments in my life that I wonder about intervention, and that is one of them.
End of the story: he sails us to our boat. My dad dives in the water yelling his girls name. He is terrified she got in the water and lost the boat. It was like a scene from a movie. She steps out of the cabin and annoyed groans “did you lose your boat again?!”
The old man and I laughed our butts off.
Been there, done that. When I could finally touch the bottom, was so exhausted had to crawl on hands and knees up the beach. Took a nice nap.
Looking at this It’s snorkeling position except you don’t have a snorkel you just put your head up for air
Interesting story, I’m at something of a loss trying to understand how it all happened. Article made no mention of jellyfish stings or anything similar. Will be curious to see if his account holds up under questioning?
I’m glad you did not have a third experience. You know what they say about third times, third times a statistic!
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