These Two Boys Survived Adrift At Sea For A Week | I Shouldn't Be Alive S3 EP5 | Wonder

best friends Troy Driscoll and Josh longer only minutes into a fishing trip when a violent Riptide drags them out to sea it has no mercy it's gonna kill you regardless if you like or not the boy spent six days battling for their lives and without food or water they're pushed to the limits of survival I just simply asked Josh to kill me I didn't want to be there no boy don't want to die yet we're too young to die [Music] [Music] [Music] when we woke up we were bored you know didn't have nothing to do it was actually my idea to take the boat in the ocean we can paddle and I'm sure you know what can go wrong Josh let's take the boat out today Carrera screw the ribbon man let's do the ocean shark fishing front short vision tour it was just you know I got a younger brother to me you know he stayed probably the whole summer at my house come on Matt be great you Paul get a boat on see catch a shark or [ __ ] the best thing about Josh is he'll always be your friend once he commits sighs your friend he you know he's gonna have your back he'll never leave you let's go fish [Applause] well here she is my baby first time I saw the boat I laughed because I was expecting you know something a lot nicer it's a project you know it floats she's looking good Tron you want to go fishing or what yes I do [Music] best friends 17-year old Josh long and 15 year old Troy Driscoll head off to Sullivan's Island a popular fishing spot just up the coast of South Carolina the weather was great the part of the beach that we put in was actually very calm josh has only just finished rebuilding the boat it has no engines or sail and is completely untried at sea we actually never used the boat before we put it in the ocean what's with the wetsuit no case might want to swim or something water still no cold what are you baby you say nothing the two boys have fished the waters around Sullivan's Island many times before and have no concerns we just planned on being out there you know just for a few hours and then going home you know and get ready for school the next day why do you know I forgot the bait this is a fishing trip I sent my cell phone in my pocket and my dad's real straight about cellphones and you know he was paying for mine at the time I knew I wasn't gonna mess it up so I just put it right back in the truck ready yeah one two three bow [Music] we kind of got an idea of hey let's go paddle between those sandbars over there you know sharks and fish probably get in the goalies because it's two sandbars and everything seemed good we were making good leeway we you know he was paddling on the front and I was paddling on the back I was having fun I was bouncing up and down but in their excitement to go fishing the boys don't check the Coast Guard warnings there's a powerful Riptide forecast for that morning right in the waters where they're paddling and we're almost to the sandbar when we just got hit by the current we're drifting I figured it was a joke you know so I was enjoying the moment I was yeah this fun you know we don't have no control you know hey this is great but uh you know Josh then drew real serious real quick [Music] I knew we were in a current and then I realized that you know we were actually going backwards so you know I tried paddling harder and the harder we paddle and the more energy we burn it seemed like we weren't getting nowhere the boys have fully codes in the Riptide and it's dragging them away from shore but out to the open ocean when I realized how far we went in such shorter time I was like this thing is really powerful well we threw the anchor out trying to get it to hook onto something you know it wasn't doing its job I mean it was an anchor of us or holding this in one position them sure enough we just kept drifting further out it was no match for the currents I don't think working yeah there's much rule out there running and you know jogging or walking and we were hoping that want something one of them would have seen us we try to get their attention but nobody you know hurt us we were already that far out it's taken just minutes for the boys and that tiny boat to be dragged hundreds of yards out to sea and led to serious trouble we both talk to each other and saying we're not going to where this isn't helping you we got to do something different we got to come up with a different plan we gotta do something stay here what do you do so I put the top of my wetsuit on I put my spins on and I started swimming [Music] Josh's plan is to swim to the sandbar with the anchor rope and then pulled the boat to safety in a panic Troy also tries to swim for the sandbar but straightaway feels the force of the current I was almost there and then I look back and see Troy struggling it feels like something's trying to just pull me under you know I just feel all my energy being sucked out of my body and once you run out of energy and you can't swim against it it has no mercy I mean it's gonna it's gonna kill you regardless if you like it or not I just told Josh can't do it we were being pulled out to sea at a very fast pace and couldn't do anything about it just 20 minutes after setting off on an innocent fishing trip the two schoolboys day out is going badly wrong as they're dragged out into the Atlantic Ocean alone in a tiny boat they have no water food or mobile phones and their ordeal has only just begun [Music] [Music] don't worry okay I told Troy I said well you know they're gonna come look for us they're gonna find us so I was like you know and I told us I'm showing a fish you know who are wait Rhys I got the whole rigged up and I stood up to cast it a wave hit the side of the boat and knocked me over and I knocked over my brand-new fishing pole in the water he lost his brand-new pole and I that really ticked him off a lot and he pretty much lost it everything I did was getting you know screw somehow that day it was definitely one of my my temper tantrums I knew he'd lost a fishing pole but that was the least of my worries no I was like hey man listen this isn't what we need to do right now you don't need to be cussing you don't need to be throwing stuff you know we need to be here as a team you know we came in it together and we were gonna go out together [Music] sorry man crazy as dusk falls and with no sign of rescue the boys begin to take stock of their situation then they're gonna come no joy I only find us I don't know where we are what's gonna happen in I'm just gonna drift around an ocean a dog shut did you know I was telling I was late Troy we're going back here for you no one - they're gonna realize tonight that we didn't come home and they'll be out here next morning okay I knew it wasn't good you know we don't seal and we don't have a cellphone we don't have food or water but it's the first you know a couple hours into the trip so somebody's gonna realize okay the boys are not home something's not right when we need to go look for I know there come the boys haven't been seen for over 10 hours and back on shore Josh's father calls for help hello is that the coastguard station I want to report my son and his best friend missing they were saying where did the boys put in at that was their first question they want to know where was the description of the boys and where they would have put the boat in we have no idea where they went no they didn't say a thing the coastguard can't mount a search until they know exactly where the boat was launched from okay thanks so Josh's father now begins his own search to find where the boys might have entered the water I had no idea where the boys were at and very very concerned that we haven't heard anything no calls and we kept searching until past four o'clock in the morning Josh's father first checks the river where he believes the boys have gone fishing and no carny check the river but nothing finding nothing there he also checks the ocean shore close to Sullivan's Island I went out of the beach I walked until I stopped probably about a hundred yards from where the trailer was but his car was black so I mean I drove right past it didn't see the car with no sighting of where the boys have launched no search is mounted that night [Music] how do me what well then then I can launch anything tonight or anything at all early out on the ocean the two boys are still drifting in their tiny boat alone they face their first night out at sea in the middle of a storm the first night I'd barely slept we were very very cold strong waves begin to batter the tiny boat and the temperature plummets to below freezing well a wave would come they would pull that side of the boat down and water would come over yeah if I ice hitting you you know we were you know freezing to death sake moving okay couldn't fill our hands we were shivering we pretty much we had to cuddle with each other you know just for body heat it was that bad suffering the extreme nighttime cold makes the boys realize just how much peril they're in panic turns to terror as they face up to the reality but their lives are in real danger the first night was filled with a lot of emotion our mood you know went from being okay we're gonna get rescued to okay you know why why are we still here there should have been a boat there should have been a helicopter you know what what's going on [Music] [Music] you know we looked out that morning there was nothing we realized that we were you know so far that we were gonna you know the land was now out of the option I did a 360 as I twisted around it saw nothing but waves and ocean and there's nowhere to go [Music] after a night shivering in freezing temperatures Josh and Troy now endure over 23 degrees of relentless heat we had no shape anybody who knows you know who's been in salt water and their clothes dry after being wet to really crusty salty there was wear and tear on our skin every so often I'd get into water just basically cool off in the water [Music] you know we swung around and got our mind off of the situation but the boys are swimming in waters notorious for sharks I'll send look down and there's a shark that raced up and hit the boat the boys realized their predicament with seconds to spare you know we looked down and the water was so clear there's a shark it was a good size it was about seven eight feet there's a few of them just circling on our boat so we were like you know that's it we're not jumping in no more back unsure Josh's father receives dramatic news from the Coast Guard we got a call off believe Hills around 10:30 telling me they had found Joshua's car well where was it Sullivan's Island but and then my heart immediately dropped I knew they were on the ocean my worst fear right yeah yeah I'll meet you there okay the Coast Guard has been searching for the boys truck and has found it right on the ocean's edge we need the keys sir they opened up the glove box they found both their their cell phones and their wallets knowing where the boys entered the water the Coast Guard is now able to mount a full-scale search a church down the street had opened their doors and they allowed us to come into their recreation center and we pretty much started congregate there the press started to show up all of their friends start to show up people from around the community I mean it was literally hundreds of people start to show up at this church now we have people on land we have boats in the water I have you know there aren't you in this area sir let me show you okay what we've done is we've taken our computer models and we calculate that the boat could not have gone any further than here I was concerned but I was very confident that that day we would find them that you know with all this effort with all these planes with all the helos out there that we were going to find these boys that day I just had almost had no doubt that they were going to [ __ ] be found that day but the boys have already drifted ninety miles further north beyond the Coast Guard search area out at sea Josh and Troy are battling the elements they've drunk no water for over 24 hours and are experiencing severe dehydration their bodies have lost over 3 pints of fluid causing muscle cramps headaches and extreme disorientation they're desperate for something to drink very hot I'm just pretty much no clouds in the sky I was a day progressed on and got hotter the water was very clear our mouths became drier and we were just thirsty so it was almost tempting to drink so Troy and I decided hey we'll gargle it and spit it back out and that way you have something wet in your mouth and you know it kind of is cold so V it'll help us a little bit and then what we won't swallow it it wasn't good but just have something cold in your mouth that's all we needed the boys know that drinking the salty seawater will dehydrate them even further but they're now so desperate they find it impossible to resist it was horrible I mean it's a bad day when you know that's the only thing you have to drink but what you're drinking is killing you and hurting you weakened by dehydration the boys are also suffering extremes of weather [Music] nighttime brings another severe drop in temperature and with no protection against the biting cold the boys have only each others body heat to keep themselves warm we got to stay up we got to keep ourselves dry let's cuddle let's talk to each other let's communicate let some make sure we're okay in the church Josh's father is keeping an all-night vigil for his boy any news nothing the Coast Guard they back out in the morning you look tired why don't you try and get some sleep tonight hey I am NOT sleeping whilst my stuff is out there but you're gonna be no use to the boy if you fall over exhausted [Music] the boys wake on their third morning with a sense of despair then on the horizon a ray of hope finally appears [Music] [Applause] it look like a matchbox boat you know so little a fishing boat is passing just a hundred yards away the end of their ordeal is now surely only moments away we yelled at the top of our lungs try to get somebody to see us you know but it was like a needle in a haystack we were so small they just turned kept on going [Music] was good to see something else but um you know they didn't stop so um you know we you know we lost a lot of hope the boys begin to realize how unlikely it is that they will be spotted in the vast ocean we knew that there was no way they're gonna find us because the oceans so big and if they hadn't found us yet they weren't gonna find us and how helpless the situation now is you're in the hands of the ocean and you can't do anything about it it's either you're gonna suck it up and you're gonna try to survive and hang in there or you're gonna give up and you're gonna die [Music] Josh's father Eddie begins yet another day search for the boys determined to remain optimistic I know we're all tired but this is the day we gonna find them today because they every day when I would get up on Monday or Tuesday on Wednesday I would just think today's the day we're gonna find the boys [Music] as well as the Coast Guard search Eddie also keeps up his own lookout on the ocean well the search got bigger every day I mean because we we knew we had more distance we had to cover the boat could have traveled more distance every day despite a massive Coast Guard and community search there's still no sign of the two boys [Music] it was like Groundhog Day every day was the same day you know you wake up there's water there's nothing else but water they're suffering from extreme dehydration only the youth and good health are keeping them alive well when you have nothing to eat or drink you know for days you know it starts to really hurt like where on your body I really didn't understand the meaning of starving or parched or you know dehydrated until then the dehydration is now life-threatening the chemical balance of their bodies is undergoing serious change and they require urgent medical attention but despite the desperate need for water all Troy can think about is food and how hungry he is I noticed my hands were peeling pretty bad because it was so hot I was so dried out so uh you know I decided to take a little piece of my skin off my hand and eyeball it up and put it on a hook we had leftover in the poke [Music] and I you know I kept doing it and a little little fish every time would stop working [Music] the boys failed to catch any fish but Troy is now so desperate he's prepared to eat almost anything you know I had to have something in my mouth something that had texture some type of meat are you doing while you got the knife I'm gonna do it Josh I just need something somebody weed why don't be sick why I seen him over on the side of the boat with a knife in his hand and he was kind of just touching it to his skin but he wasn't like cutting and he was just touching to see how sharp her yes it was some matter you can you do it still Shelly so I asked Josh you know can you please cut my finger off you know with me looking away just go down when as hard as you can knock you out Jordan Stan crazy mostly our Charleston back on shore after three days of searching the Coast Guard gives Josh's father some devastating news [Music] nothing all right well first love within a target like Mary mr. Lowe then we gonna go down to Ashley Rubin banks the monitor on the ground mr. long we've been searching for three days this has been the most extensive search in South Carolina's history and we found nothing no no no no you can't call off the search I'm truly sorry there's nothing more we can do Coast Guard came to us and said they're going to officially call off the search and now they're gonna switch it from a rescue to a recovery starting first thing in the morning they were gonna just start come with the beaches looking for the bodies I just totally couldn't believe that they're gonna stop searching for the boys it melted my heart to know my little boy was possibly gone [Music] [Laughter] knowing the Coast Guard is now called off the search Eddie is left with little more than his faith Oh [Music] that's the lot there I just know that still out there throughout the whole thing I just had to rely on prayer I just realized that this was gonna be you know in God's hands to bring these boys threw him out at sea the boys are facing up to the reality that they may never be rescued I didn't think I was gonna ever have a future I just I thought my 15 years on earth was um was it every time we thought of our family our parents it was just real emotional we both you know looked at each other and we were very very sad very nervous very scared we were both trying to doze off and I fell asleep and he was already asleep and nicely I wake up to a sound of an engine the boys have been welcomed by a huge cargo ship heading directly towards them never been close to something that big it was stories upon stories high at the same time it was so close it seemed like I could touch it just as the boys had given up all hope of being rescued it seems help has finally arrived but the enormous ship doesn't stop and is now about to run over them [Music] incredibly the swell of the ship pushes the boys just out of its path and saves them from almost certain death [Music] they can only watch as their final hope of being rescued disappears into the night if they're not gonna rescue us where we're only feet away from them they're definitely not gonna rescue us when we're you know a couple hundred or thousand feet away it just wasn't gonna happen we're simply a needle in a haystack [Music] the boys have now been out at sea for over five days and with no food or water are in the most extreme stage of dehydration they've lost pints of water over 20 percent of their body fluids their vital organs are shutting down and they're drifting in and out of consciousness few people ever survived this long without water my body hurts I didn't want to be there no more I didn't want to be out in the middle of the water I was suffering and it was a slow death I was ready to go home to God even though Josh tries to stay strong for his younger friend he's also battling his own demons [Music] Josh Josh job we didn't believe in suicide but I was swimming in the water I just was like if I went down as deep as I can go you know I swam down probably about 3540 feet [Music] Josh if a shark grabs me don't try to save me I was like just let me know I'm not gonna put up a fight and then I thought you know what I might loose you know what I'm missing out as far as growing up and have my family's a move on without me all those emotions run through your head [Music] gosh [Music] I came at a surface and I was just like you know what I'm surely got Co he wants to because I can't do it [Music] I would go back and forth the whole time to have to hang on to hope but also realizing that they might be gone and that was a struggle and not knowing knowing they were out in the water knowing that that if they're out there what is the condition if they're not out there if they're gone you know how long before we can bring a closure to this [Music] every night when I would come home and drive down the street someone in my neighborhood blind the entire street with bags with candles in [Music] so when I drove home it took me right up to my house the bags and the candles were out every single night I was gonna have to get ready for what I thought would be the memorial service once the bodies were found [Music] we get back they work in my truck when you're 60 I teach you to drive towards the end of the week you could tell he was starting to get real weak just he really had nothing left in him he didn't want to hardly move basically I keep trying to wake him up because I thought you know I didn't want I really didn't want him to die [Music] I don't want to be in the boat no more I want to be dead I just simply asked Josh to kill me you're talking crazy talk I can't do with man never Troy asked me if I would stab them and I just told that there's no way I could do that because if Troy had died I wouldn't be able to come home even if they did find us because I couldn't go home and tell his parents I look that's their baby boy died [Music] Troy has now completely lost the will to live his best friend won't kill him so he tries one last desperate attempt to put an end to the ordeal every night you see like a little glow-in-the-dark old boss and they're called jelly balls Troy now sees the jelly balls has not only something to eat but a possible way out it's poisonous you know and it kills me hopefully I die a peaceful you know a peaceful death I wasn't just gonna eat a little bit and get real sick and suffer even more I was gonna need a lot and if they were poisonous you know I was gonna go out on the first hit but the jelly balls have no effect and now the boys can do nothing but a way to slow agonizing death we pretty much realized that we're just waiting on the dog we didn't know how much longer would be alive [Music] [Music] you over Sioux of course we both cried and we don't want to die yet we're too young to die you know you're dying but you're dying slowly and it's painful and it's long and every second that you're alive you're dying at the same time I knew I didn't have much longer in fact the dehydration is now so advanced that they literally have only a few more hours left to live we should write something down summoning the last of their energy the boys scratch out their final goodbyes to the families they're leaving behind [Music] we love them and we're sorry and I thanked everybody for their support and you know I'm you know basically just said that I'm sorry for what happened I remember write to my mom and my dad you know specifically saying thanks for everything you've done for me thanks for teaching me what you've taught me the two school boys are staring into the abyss they've given up on life and can do no more than await deaths final call Johnson here so well as me and Josh I'm laid in the boat I heard the roar of a boat again it's like an engine getting closer I see this huge fishing boat coming straight at us so at that time I you know jerk Josh I was like you got to get up I was crying but that same time I was like I wasn't crying because I had nothing to cry I was just screaming hey please help us please we need help the two boys are just a speck in the ocean but unlike the boats on previous days this time they've been spotted [Music] so basically we knew they saw us we kind of just started like you know basically just gave each other huge hair like this is a miracle you know I can't believe we're actually getting saved the captain reached over you know pulled me up cuz I barely had any energy to get up and you know I flopped on the deck I couldn't understand them because it was whining whimpering happy sad at a whole nine yards but one of the first things that Joyce said to me asked me if I believed in God and that's so yeah I guess I do now the miracle happened [Music] [Music] patch me through the Coast Guard hello it was the Coast Guard and he said we have your sign it would you like to speak with me and I said put him on and when I first heard his voice it didn't even sound like Josh it sounded so weak and that he wasn't so incredibly weak but he started saying dad I love you and to hear it's voice it was a true miracle there's no doubt in my mind that it was a true miracle doctors believed that the two boys were within hours of death when they were rescued he looked soaked then and so exhausted but he he just from the moment I walked in the door he was since again I love you I love you it was hard to believe that we made it out alive we were expecting the worst Shore and I knew we were just waiting on dying and that you know I couldn't believe that we got a say a chance Josh's used his second chance to become a family man he married his high school sweetheart and now has a baby boy Troy has gone on to fulfill his lifetime ambition to become a firefighter I have a lot of faith in myself now if I ever faced anything that you know might be difficult then I'm not gonna give up

Channel: Wonder

Views: 4,574,262

Rating: 4.8220291 out of 5

Keywords: wonder, i shouldn't be alive, Boys Adrift, lost at sea, wonder lost at sea, 6 days lost at sea, 6 days adrift, I Shouldn't Be Alive S3 EP5, i shouldnt be alive full episodes, survival videos, wonder survival stories, survivors tell their story, full length documentaries, survival documentaries, survival documentaries full length, survival documentaries 2019, true stories, survival stories documentary

Id: WfOX7eQtD-w

Length: 48min 9sec (2889 seconds)

Published: Thu May 31 2018