The Men Had To Keep Floating To Survive The Harsh Sea | I Shouldn't Be Alive S4 EP14 | Wonder

you you one abode suddenly capsizes skipper Steve Conway and four young crew Alette stranded in the Gulf of Mexico I was terrified beyond belief floating aimlessly without a life raft they face exposure hypothermia and the threat of drowning Jonas Steve must draw on every ounce of his experience to keep the four young men alive you gotta have a fierce will to live [Music] I swim as hard as you can [Music] oh my god for this truck [Music] skipper Steve Conway and the crew of the Cynthia woods are preparing to set sail on an epic boat race Steve is a vastly experienced sailor a Coast Guard commander for 21 years he has a lifelong love of the ocean when people get around the ocean one or two things happened they didn't fall in love with the ocean or they fall out of love with the ocean and I can't really explain why it happens but for a number of us who go out on the water there's just an affinity a feel for it that's like nothing else Steve's young crew today is a team of students from Texas A&M University I was real confident of the boat and the crew were experienced young man had been sailing for a number of years and was looking to be a really great race his right-hand man on board is a young sailor he's known for three years 22 year-old Travis right I've been sailing with Steve for three years at that point an excellent sailor in a very safe person but very experienced and definitely the leading presence on the boat he was definitely fully in command as speed bits his wife could buy he's all too aware of the responsibility he has for his young crew all right Travis can you do the line I just designated skipper to vessel and as such the skipper is ultimately responsible for everything it's not a responsibility that you take lightly and it's not a responsibility you can walk away from [Music] for over three months the crew have trained together in preparation for the 630 mile race from Galveston Texas severe cruise Mexico feel of the wind and the sound of the wind through the rigging in a field of the vote in a waves it's just almost addictive they sales six miles out of the harbor and boat Safety Officer Roger stone counts them down to the start of the race Roger was a very experienced sailor very experienced racer a really great coach just a great way of explaining to young men and women what to do and how to do it [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] they soon break away from the other boats and head out into the high seas of the Mexican Gulf keep it pointed 180 degrees due south Steve guy is the least experienced sailor on board and is relishing the chance to take part in a big ocean race Travis was sitting next to me showing me kind of how to do things and I felt pretty good you know I'm in control of this boat and it's just kind of a power rush cuz you're like Here I am on the open ocean doing what I love to do everyone was ready to go but you could also tell we were also in that competitive mood of we're you know we're wanting to do this right here's a way to see how fast we're going see just a sail and see how we go faster as the race gets underway that crew are in high spirits and excited by the challenge ahead doing good for over six hours the Cynthia woods make superb progress everything was going great the Sun set the moon was up I realized about two hours into the watch that I hadn't even got wet yet the first wave hadn't even splashed over and splashed food which was unheard of to be out that long and not get splashed and get wet so it was just an absolutely beautiful night as dusk falls on their first night at sea two of the young students rigged the sails for the night's racing below deck Travis Roger and Steve guy tried to get some sleep before taking over for the night watch it wasn't my time to go on deck here I just decided okay I'll get up I'll get something to eat I'll go you know shoot the breeze with the guys on deck and see what's up and start getting settled in that's what it all started going downhill finding water inside the cabin is not unusual but Travis instinctively suspects something is badly wrong I opened up the floorboard and it just came pouring in hey what's going on it's every sailors worst nightmare the boats hull has a serious leak due to a previous incident the keel the huge balancing weight at the bottom of the boat was cracked along its mount skipper Steve knows that they're in terrible trouble and they must drop the sails to slow down but before the guys can get the sales down the Kela vassal party completely came off and about went instantly into the water the boat just laid over into the water just completely horizontal all of a sudden the lights go out the engine shuts off upon deck skipper Steve is clinging to the capsized boat I was hanging underneath the boat because it wasn't still up out of the water at that point thinking it was time to go [Music] I tripped yourselves in just a matter of seconds but boat has completely overturned Steven the two students on deck escape the sinking boat but Roger Travis and Steve guy are trapped inside and seawater is flooding in yeah screamed it I'm not dying in here this is not where I'm gonna die unless they can find a way out of the cabin they are just seconds from being dragged to the bottom of the ocean emotion is telling you at that point you're screwed I mean there is no way out of a situation like this the water level is rising rapidly unless they can get out there just seconds from being dragged down with the sinking boat their only escape route is a tiny hatch but a powerful wall of seawater is pouring through it I'm sitting there thinking to myself how am I gonna swim through here I don't even think an Olympic swimmer could actually get through this with all the water rushing through we couldn't even hope to match the flow I was hoping to grab the sides of it and forced my way out but the first time I tried that it blew me right back [Music] Steve Conway can do nothing but wait for the three men to emerge I didn't really know what was going on down below but my biggest concern was that Roger Steve guy and Travis Martin able to get out of the vessel and drowned get out of it man what are we gonna do I was terrified beyond belief I don't even want to see what my face looks like that point as I was trying to go down the second time Roger crap my legs and pushed [Music] your next gopher what about you I'll follow come on do it now [Music] [Music] [Music] five of the six crew are now out of the boat but there is still one man missing they wait but Roger stone fails to appear [Music] nobody knew what happened to Roger nobody had seen him come out the other side we didn't know what if Roger was in the boat or if Roger was floating off in different directions I would have never let anybody go back in in the situation we're in with all the lines out in underwater there was no real chance that somebody would be able to dive underneath get in there I could have gone inside the boat with absolutely no lighting whatsoever felt my way around and never found him even if he was in there because there's too many nooks and crannies in that place and it would have had to do it all on one breath of air the crew now have to focus on their own survival Steve guy has escaped the boat with no life jacket [Music] skipper Steve sends the crew back to the boat to get the emergency flotation ring it was very crucial we already knew that Stephen didn't have a lifejacket if he had the horseshoe ring he'd have something to float with the guys have only moments to grab it before the boat sinks but it's tangled in a web of matted ropes [Music] releasing the ring is an impossible task with their life jackets on without don't take off your jacket do whatever you can but keep your jacket on okay skipper Steven the young student are being dragged away in the current he knows he must take immediate action this point there's a couple of major things you try to do the first thing you try to do is stay with the boat the second thing you try to do is stay together so in this case Stephen I couldn't swim back to the boat so I decided that it would be better for us to stay together also I wasn't sure that my floatation was enough for both Steve and I skipper Steve orders the guys to abandon the floatation ring Steve decides their best option is to tie themselves together so that no one can drift off into the vast ocean alone anything we could to make sure that Steve guy was not going to come loose or if he did he would be just a tug way and we locked arms and legs to try and preserve heat I mean it's probably the most awkward position you can imagine as far as five guys together but it's what we had to do as that boat sinks in front of them all they can do is pray the rescue but in the dead of night and 60 miles out at sea nobody knows they're missing [Music] our chances of getting out of this mess are less than 10% easy the Cynthia woods sank in just a matter of moments and with it all of their emergency equipment is gone the only thing you've got is the people that are with you and the clothes on your back the crew had no time to raise the alarm so no search party will be called out until dawn Steve Conway knows that if his student kruer to survive the night he will have to draw on all his years of experience as a skipper until you walk back ashore you're still the skipper and I was very conscious and focused on making sure that everybody was okay but adrift in the vast ocean they'll have to survive in one of the most challenging environments on earth during the first night the immediate thought process conserve your energy you don't know how long you're gonna be in a water you don't know when somebody will show up to rescue about every three to five minutes the water would blow up our nose no matter what we did how are we turn from the wave action and you'd gag it up spit it out curse for a minute in about three to five minutes later it happened again see water contains three times more salt than human blood it's so concentrated but swallowing just a mere pint can cause kidney failure and death you cannot swallow sour water at all you get that stuff in you and it'll kill you [Music] really yeah when I get out of here I'm gonna have the biggest feast we were just kind of talking you know saying kind of joking around yeah so what are you gonna do when you get rescued you know oh man my parents gonna be mad when they find out we're here she was like full don't get in between me and the bar because that's where I'm gonna be when I get picked up you got your shoes on everybody else who lost her shoes except Joseph who had a brand-new pair of Nikes nothing's gonna take my shoes from me [Laughter] Steve and his men are completely alone in the vast ocean on the horizon they spot something that gives them a glimmer of hope there were sixty miles off the coast of Texas we are outside the shipping lanes already our best possible chance at rescue at this point in time is going to be a fishing boat that happens to be out here [Applause] [Music] they do everything they can to catch the boats attention hopes were really high hoping that maybe someone on the deck would be like oh what's that little light flashing out there and tell someone on the bridge what was going on but that didn't happen even if you see somebody in trigger you know any of the signalling devices we have we all have whistles on our vests and lights and that kind of stuff there is a very slim to none chance that they're gonna see us and recognize us as people in distress but the boat fails to see them as the night wears on their thoughts turned to their missing comrade where do you think Roger it's probably on the life raft Chuck in a beer do you think it's okay to be fine he's an experienced yachtsman that was what to do I think all of us kind of kept a hope that he did get out I mean kind of deep down there was that well maybe he didn't but it was always the positive that always came out at this point we weren't talking too much you know that kind of died off we just kind of sat there and did our thing stared off into space [Music] about 3:30 in the morning I remember thinking we're floating along we're all lashed together four to six foot waves and thinking that I really ought to be on a boat about ten miles farther south sailing it was an almost dreamlike and surreal as they drift on the ocean current Steve guys spot something on the horizon it's one of the many unmanned oil rigs dotted around the Mexican Gulf and for young Steve an obvious way out of the ordeal to me there it was and we're being pushed down to it it almost seemed like we were circling around it like so upstairs was saying hey look guys there's a platform for you I thought it was worth trying to swim towards the platform distance isn't the only problem so I have to realize that that structure is 100 and something feet over the water and if you if you even if you swim to it how do you get out of the water Travis was the student skipper and sort of second after me so he was - he was my rock and I and then I stood with as far as any kind of discussion about what should we do should we try to swim should we do this or that maybe swimming against the wind we use up all our energy and for what it's kind of disheartening when the decision was made to this kind of drift past it skipper Steve makes the decision to conserve their energy they're now pinning all their hopes on rescuers finding them but even staying put is no guarantee of safety the Mexican Gulf is a shark-infested body of water big sharks how does it want you worry about Tigers are probably the most risky they get really large and it's not long before Steve's worst fears are realized I saw a triangular fan go by now the other guy saw desperate to ensure the young crew stay calm Steve keeps the sighting to himself I'm certainly not gonna say something that's going to unnecessarily concern them if there's something they need to know I was sharing it with but they didn't need to know what they didn't need to know it [Music] but me I think there was a sense of relief as the Sun rose I remember thinking okay it slide and just psychologically I think the light was with reassuring we could see more of what was around this less risk of something surprising us certainly and with the morning light comes the hope that a search will soon be launched what's gonna happen is this I started walking the students through what would happen we had a normal 8 o'clock call in on our satellite radio every morning 8 o'clock I called in and said here's where we're at we're ok and just did a daily check in about 8 o'clock I'll start listening for us I figure about 8:15 I'll call the Coast Guard wait when do you think they'll send out a search I figure about 10 o'clock we'll see the first planes what if they don't find this relief will they stop searching oh not for a long time yet buddy I figure about 8 to 10 days this kind of a search you just keep it up long pass there's any chance of people surviving actually but dawn also brings with it the intense heat of the Morning Sun [Music] the Sun was out none of said caps on fairly quickly we started a bar my god it was hot as heck it felt like being in a sauna I were just boiling by midday it's been 13 hours since the boat sank but there's still no sign of rescue we should be seeing something we should be seeing you know planes or hearing planes fly over even an even in a distance I was getting to the point where we're all very tired Steve Conway knows he must keep his crew focused on the horizon is the oil rig the same one they saw the previous night with the wind behind us I think we can make it only hours earlier they'd rejected swimming to the rig because it was just too far away having dismissed the exact same thing probably 12 hours ago I clearly thought that rig was a good idea he gave us a focus it gave us an objective he gave us a sense that we were doing something beyond just floating to help ourselves [Music] the live jackets were very much starting to chafe on us and starting to really rub parts of our skin wrong so I at one point stripped out of mine and gave it to Steven the men's swim for over two hours but they're making almost no progress toward the rig and the effort is draining it was the dumbest thing I can think of possibly doing in retrospect because I was thinking that rig was probably about five ten miles away but my perspective significantly skewed at that point the energy expenditure of trying to swim against the waves and against the wind you're not going to get very far for the amount of energy that you're going to put out despite their desperately slow progress the crew struggles on towards the rig but exhaustion is not their only enemy [Music] we saw a Portuguese man-of-war which is a jellyfish behind him will run anywhere from 20 30 50 60 feet of tentacles stretched out with stingers on the long deadly tentacles are filled with venom as long as you stay away from him you're fine but you get stung by one of them in our dead so I'm drifting toward us we knew we had to stomp quickly [Music] they finally escape the deadly jellyfish but they've pushed themselves to the limit getting to the rig now is impossible exhausted and dehydrated they're forced to abandon their attempt they've now been in the water for over 14 hours and the ordeal is starting to take a terrible physical toll by about 2:00 o'clock it had been roughly 24 hours since I had last had any kind of food or drink and I figured everybody else is in the same position fairly dehydrated from being out there in the water and sweating it all out all day [Music] the human body can survive 48 hours without water but with the Sun beating down and their skin exposed to salt water the crew is succumbing rapidly to extreme dehydration one of the big hazards of being at salt water is dehydration which sounds totally backwards you know you're floating in the water and you're becoming dehydrated our fingers were just puckered up and just totally you know dried up finally by mid afternoon the authorities have detected a signal from the sunken boats transponder and a full rescue attempt is underway the helicopter arrived late that afternoon and we actually saw it hovering out off in the distance after withstanding 14 hours out in the ocean it seems that their ordeal is about to end but the five men have been dragged by ocean currents and they are now miles from the sunken boat they can do nothing but watch helplessly as the search plays out in the distance we could see in the whole time they just couldn't see us it builds you up and then it crushes you Oh God there it is you know this could be the one and then it's not I just kind of snapped at that point [Music] they're gonna find it I just sent me over the edge it's like how can you even think like that right now you've got four other people here that all they need to hear are positive thoughts not your negative thoughts you know right this the man now believe their hope of rescue is gone and with the second night fast approaching they fear death we'll take them one by one it was so late at that point that we all kind of were probably thinking the same thing it's you know they haven't seen us yet we're not doing well at all somebody's gonna be going pretty soon come on come on guys Joe Travis come on in together I see kitchen come on stay together the whole day with no protection against the Blazing Sun has pushed the crew to the edge lower portion of my stomach was burned my arms were burned my legs were burned and my face was burned I wanted the burn to go away do you God you don't want the burn to go away as the Sun drops the temperature plummets under fight to stay cool turns into a battle to keep warm I was getting to the point where we're all very tired I think I probably blacked out for a few seconds every now and then sorry with light fading the rescue helicopters begin to disappear over the horizon and skipper Steve drops a bombshell we may not see another helicopter until tomorrow morning are you kidding there's no way we can last another night [Music] [Music] I was deathly afraid of the impact of the young man I was worth dying on her family's to be in any way responsible for somebody a parent losing a child I couldn't imagine let me tell you about a case study that I met a fishing boat overturned very fit 22-year old football player died but a 68 year old grandmother survived afterwards they interview the grandmother and a transom who's so much fitter died and she goes I wasn't gonna give it I wasn't going to die you gotta have a fierce will to live you just got to never give up no we'll just survive it's the most critical thing for us to make it through we must never give okay never giving up was the critical thing for our survival but the will to live isn't enough to protect the crew from the effects of severe hypothermia your core temperature starts to fall once it gets below 95 degrees down to around 90 degrees you die you just go to sleep it's not especially traumatic you just fall asleep and don't wake up Joe started going in and out of it because he kind of I guess he fell asleep he started reaching over and started grabbing Ross's space jump okay so what he's doing sorry raus the smallest of the group is beginning to drift in and out of consciousness Ross was in the worst situation because the rest of us are fairly big guys Ross had zero body fat so he had no insulation like the rest of us and it was noticeably affecting him more he wasn't talking at this point skipper Steve has done all he can to keep his crew alive but after nearly 20 hours in the sea he too is now fading first we'd all been out in the water the same amount of time the bigger guys would have probably lasted now or maybe two more but if Steve was going we didn't have much more time either [Music] the five sailors have now been in the ocean for over 24 hours they've done everything they can to withstand their ordeal but they're losing the battle to survive you know in the dark it's kind of depressing this vast expanse of ocean I felt really small you know here you are you feel like a grain of sand in the world they've suffered acute exposure to the Sun extreme dehydration and hypothermia [Music] and now just hours from death nobody was saying oh my god they're not gonna find us oh my god you know we're gonna die down here nobody has both had vocalized it but we all kind of were probably thinking the same thing [Music] Steve Conway has done all he can to keep his young crew alive but now he knows but with no sign of rescue his quest to survive us failed I was scared of what the impact will be on my wife we've been married at that point 30 years and we're best friends and still very very close we've seen other people lose spouses and it's hard and no heroic way at all but just matter-of-factly as I was floating in the water I realized that wasn't afraid of dying drifting in and out of consciousness the five men can now do nothing more but await deaths final call then out in the darkness comes the sight they've been dreaming of [Applause] and all of a sudden every light on that helicopter came on [Music] [Applause] [Music] the rescue search hadn't been abandoned for the night the Coast Guard had tracked the ocean currents which eventually led them to the missing crew everyone just screamed it I'm happy you know we're going home it all really set in that it's finally done it's finally over you know we're getting out of this and we're getting out of it alive the five men were airlifted to the hospital and they all made a complete recovery but when the Coast Guard finally salvaged the sunken Cynthia woods they found the body of missing crewmen but Roger stone nothing we say or nothing we can do can honor Roger more than his actions of the 6th of June 2008 when he stopped got those two students oriented out through the flowing water out of the boat ultimately at the risk and sacrifice of his own life and so it's never appropriate to talk about this without recognizing Roger sacrifice and the sacrifice of his wife and two children I would not have made it without red shell I do think about Roger and when I do it makes me want to go live my life to the fullest possible way because life's short and I realized that floating out there the only thing I decided to do different when I got back was that I was gonna save her things more not to big things but the little things over Christmas I was holding my grandson probably for fourteen thousand times and I stopped for a minute and I thought this is just wonderful and my takeaway messages I hold him and have my my daughters and my wife around me his life is wonderful you just have to savor and that's what I'm doing different you

Channel: Wonder

Views: 2,093,711

Rating: 4.8195348 out of 5

Keywords: wonder, i shouldn't be alive, i shouldn't be alive full episodes, wonder i shouldn't be alive, i shouldn't be alive s4 ep14, isba, i shouldn't be alive series 4, wonder survival videos, i shouldn't be alive ocean disaster, ocean disaster, lost at sea, family lost at sea, shipwrecked, shipwrecked stories, stranded, flooded boat, how to stop a boat from sinking, sinking ship, sea survival, survival stories, extreme weather at sea, extreme survival

Id: wZ1uhExgDpI

Length: 48min 12sec (2892 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 08 2018