Real Survival Stories - Hole in the Ocean: Into the Vortex

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Two men set out from Florida, ferrying a fishing boat to Cancún. It’s a routine job that should take a single day. But nearly 100 miles off the coast, the waters turn against them. Without warning, a yawning chasm opens in the middle of the ocean. Johnny Savage and his captain are caught in a horrifying drama. The radio is dead. The life raft is nowhere to be seen. And the warm, turquoise waters around them are teeming with predators… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Chris McDonald | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Jacob Booth, Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [e-mail] Our sister podcast Short History Of… has a new book! Pre-order your copy of A Short History of Ancient Rome now at noiser.com/books Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's April the 13th, 1998, 90 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida. The early morning sun hangs low on the horizon, casting streaks of bruised purple, pink and orange across the rippling expanse of the Gulf of Mexico. Overhead, the sky stretches in a vast, unbroken canvas of blue, disturbed only by the occasional wisp of cloud. The air is still. barely a breath of wind. Cutting through this stillness is a lone sport fishing boat, the Eninga.

Captain Eric Bingham stands on the flybridge, squinting towards the horizon, his hands resting lazily on the wheel. Nearby, 26-year-old mate Johnny Savage, is sprawled on the front bench. After a late-night fishing session in the marina, he's trying to get some much-needed shot-eye. But sleep won't come. He's too full of adrenaline and anticipation. An exciting trip lies ahead. Time spent in the glorious outdoors trying to hook a prize sailfish.

But it's not the thrill of a potential catch that jolts him upright. It's a sudden, sharp bang, like the roar of a cannon echoing through the boat. Heart pounding, he listens, trying to work out what's causing it. Then it comes again. louder this time. Johnny swings his legs down and stands, bare feet on the warm boards, the deck humming beneath him. He follows the sound of the salon, the boat's main living area. The room's heavy double doors, which should have been clamped shut, are now swinging open

and slamming together with each bounce of the hull. Johnny shouts up to Captain Eric, asking him to slow the boat to idle so that he can fix the problem. Once the Ininga eases into a softer rhythm, Johnny latches the doors tight and climbs the ladder up to the bridge, wiping his hands on his shorts. Problem solved. But as he goes to say something to Eric, he stops. His captain is wearing a deeply strange and unsettling expression. He's frozen, eyes wide, staring straight ahead out to sea. Johnny spins around, following Eric's.

gaze and what he witnesses his mind-boggling. Never seen anything like it for my life. It was like a whole notion. It wasn't like looking forward and seeing like a cliff like we're climbing a cliff or anything like that or we're climbing a mountain. It was just normal seas and then it was a hole. The sea ahead looks like something from a sci-fi movie. Where there was once a carpet of turquoise, there is now a vast depression, a swirling

more. The edges foam and churn. The surface slopes steeply down into a seemingly bottomless, dark center. A silent, impossible void where the ocean should be, but isn't. There is no time to change course. Nothing they can do to avoid the yawning chasm. For a moment, the Ininga teeters on the edge, perched on the watery crest, like a roller coaster just before the drop. Then the bow tips, and the boat tumbles into the jaws of the sea. The Inigo was 56 feet long, and that hole was deep enough that basically it turned vertical and dropped down. And as she fell, I just remember this, like, how in the world is this even happening?

Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to real survival stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet Johnny Savage. In April 1998, he is part of a two-man crew. Ferrying a luxury fishing boat from Florida to Cancun, Mexico, a routine job that should

take a single day. But nearly 100 miles off the coast, the waters turn against them. Without warning, an incredibly rare and terrifying natural phenomenon rips their vessel apart. No one knows where they are. The radio is dead. The life raft is nowhere to be seen, and the warm turquoise waters around them. are teeming with predators. And that's before the storm approaches.

We're 90 miles out. Nobody knows where we are. And the thoughts begin to manifest. You're going to either get eaten by a shark or you're going to drown. You're going to die out here. Anew is only a matter of time. I'm John Hopkins. From the Noyser Podcast Network, this is real survival stories.

It's 5 a.m. on April the 13th, 1998, in Key West, Florida. A.m. still lingers in the sky, casting a silver sheen across the marina. Boats bob gently in their slips, their hulls creaking softly against the docks. An occasional splash breaks the silence, a mullet jumping or a tarpan rolling just beneath the surface. On board the Oninga, a sleek custom-built 56-foot sport fishing boat, Captain Eric Bingham and 26-year-old mate Johnny Savage are preparing for departure. For the past two days they've been hard at work, scrubbing decks, Checking fuel lines, restocking gear, and running through maintenance checklists,

getting the vessel ready for the 350-mile crossing to Cancun, Mexico. It's a trip they plan to complete in a single day. But first, breakfast. Eric stands at the galley counter, assembling his signature meal, toasted bagels with smoked salmon, topped with slices of fresh tomato, and a sprinkle of black pepper. While he waits, Johnny peers up. the window. Despite a lifetime spent on the water, the sea hasn't lost its grip on him.

As the departure time ticks closer, the sense of anticipation and adventure stirs something in him, just like it did when he was a kid. I grew up, pretty much the southern part of Virginia Beach. It's an area that's rural, a lot of swamps, a lot of places to fish. There's a kid living in the country, when you get bored, didn't have Xbox and all that stuff back then, so grab a fishing and rod hop on my bike and travel somewhere to go fishing. What began as a childhood pastime, soon turned into something Johnny was keen to pursue as a profession. I always got a little bit more excited seeing other people catch fish than when I would catch him myself. And the neat thing about that is how that would end up evolving

into a career. At just 16, Johnny landed his first job as a mate on a headboat. The kind that ferry's curious tourists out for a few hours, armed with rental rods and high hopes. It wasn't long before he graduated to private charters, spending longer days with seasoned anglers who knew their way around a reel. It was out there miles from shore that Johnny got a taste for the extreme. I wanted to get to the offshore fishing. It's a little bit more intense as far as the action goes. It gets extremely exciting and it's an adrenaline rush, especially when you're catching thousand-pound fish potentially. It's man versus fish. By 25, Johnny had completed an internship with the Department of Defense and was offered a full-time position, but he turned

it down. The sea was calling. He wanted to make his name as a full-time mate on charter boats. But in this line of work, there are no CVs. Everything runs on word of mouth. So when Johnny found himself needing a new gig, a friend put him in touch with Captain Eric Bingham and experienced Aussie seafarer. Man, I just fell in love with Eric right away, just that Australian accent, his personality, and he had knowledge and techniques that I wasn't familiar with.

And I saw that it is an exciting opportunity to learn. Eric had quite the proposition for Johnny, a three-month trip aboard the Ininga, traveling to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala alongside the family who owned the vessel. Johnny leapt to the chance. And after a trial run to the Bahamas with the host family proved to be a roaring success, the deal was sealed.

He'd found his next job. Hello, I'm Greg Jenner, host of You're Dead to Me, the comedy podcast from the BBC that takes history seriously. Each week I'm joined by a comedian and an expert historian to learn and laugh about the past. In our all-new season, we cover unique areas of history that your school lessons may have missed, from getting ready in the Renaissance era to the Kellogg Brothers.

Listen to your dead to me now, wherever you get your podcasts. After breakfast, Johnny and Eric tidied away the last of their gear. The Inga is loaded with enough supplies for three months at sea. Cancun is the first stop, where the family who own the boat are due to meet Johnny and Eric. Everything's prepped, ready to go. Johnny has even managed to sneak aboard his beloved surfboard,

just in case there's a chance to enjoy Cancun's swells. I took that surfboard down there, and I'm like, Cap, you know, would it be right for me to bring my surfboard with me? And he got to look, he's such a good heart of dude. And he looked at me, goes, that's all right, buddy, you can bring it, but it's going to stay in your bump. almost everything is in place but one decision remains what to do with the e-perb an emergency positioning device and the life raft they're currently both sitting inside the boat moving them up to the cockpit would be an option

for easier access should they run into trouble but conditions right now are ideal the forecast is clear the sea is calm, there's barely a breath of wind. So we left it inside, just complacency. Our response was typical to the mindset of that day, which was, well, nothing ever happens during the daytime. It's just going to be a beautiful crossing. As a matter of fact, I called that my dad the night before and told him, you know, Dad, I'll call you tomorrow night from Mexico.

We're going to have a beautiful crossing. Just before dawn, Captain Eric fires up. engine the deep from of the diesel motor reverberates through the aninga's hull as she slips from her birth and out into open water the glow of the marina fades behind them to a soft shimmer before long they're in the gulf stream the sun begins to rise a blaze of red and gold spills across the sea transforming the calm waters into a field of molten fire I remember I was sitting up there just with Captain Eric. He just listened to his funny stories and just chatting and talking about fishing

and just the life and the wisdom that a mate can gain from his captain. After an hour or so, the weight of a late night begins to catch up with Johnny. He pulls on his wet weather gear and stretches out on the bench near the helm. But before he can drift off, something jolts him upright. We were going along and all of a sudden we heard a noise that was like, bam bam's like what in the world's that the sound echoes through the boat like gunshots johnny sits up and scrambles to the salon the double doors normally latched tight have come loose slamming back and forth with the motion of the waves johnny does a quick fix

it'll need proper attention when they get to mexico but it should hold for now satisfied he climbs back to the flybridge to let eric know it's sorted But now something else is wrong. Eric is frozen, knuckles white on the wheel, eyes fixed on the water ahead. Johnny, almost in slow motion, turns his head to sea. Nothing could have prepared him for what comes next. Never seen anything like it for my life. It was like a whole notion.

But it wasn't like looking forward and seeing like a cliff, like we're climbing a cliff or anything like that. Or we're climbing a mountain. It was just normal seas and then it was a hole. Ahead of them, a chasm has opened in the water, impossible, seemingly unnatural. With no time to react, the boat comes to a stop on the precipice of a wave, rocking ominously. Time seems to stand still as the vortex swirls below them. And then... They're falling.

That hole was deep enough that when her bowing off of it, it turned vertical. vertical and drop down. And as she fell, I just remember this, like, how in the world is this even happening? What Johnny doesn't know is that he has just encountered what is known as a rogue wave. Also colloquially called a freak wave or monster wave, it is an extremely rare ocean swell that towers over everything

around it, often exceeding twice the height of the surrounding seas, causing enormous, echoing, troughs in the water. At one time, rogue waves were considered a myth, but in 1995 one struck an oil platform in the North Sea and for the first time a rogue wave was recorded and confirmed. Most vessels that meet one don't survive, and right now it seems the Ininga will be no exception. Falling vertically, the hull smashes into the wall of water with sickening force. Bulkheads shear. A deep crack rips open along the starboard bow, tearing the vessel apart.

We're 90 miles out, nobody knows where we are. As I saw just the debris and everything up in front of us, that's when I turned around to Cap Merrick and I'm like, she's going down. Even as the vessel fractures and seawater floods its every nook and cranny, Captain Eric's experience comes to the fore. He races to the flybridge, reaching instinctively for the radar. instinctively for the radio. I remember seeing him reaching over to his left,

which is where our radios, or VHF radios, and he stopped. Basically, our first line of defense in this situation to save our life is one word that said three times, Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. And when he stopped, I knew that wasn't good because he never picked up the radio. The radios were already dead. The impact has wiped out any chance of communication with the outside world.

Eric shouts for Johnny to grab the life jackets. Then he turns, heading below in a desperate attempt to retrieve the E-Purb, the emergency radio beacon that's stored earlier. It's their last hope. Johnny rushes to the hatch, desperate to find the life jackets, which might buy them some time. But there is another problem. As he throws open the hatch, chaos greets him.

The storage space has been transformed into a tangle of equipment and gear. The life jackets are in there somewhere, but buried deep. Johnny claws at the mess, tossing items aside, his breath growing ragged. He casts a sideways look through the door. The aninga is listing at a sharp angle, and water is pouring in. He can't wait any longer. If he does, he might become trapped. Instead, he runs out onto what remains of the deck to check on Eric.

He is having no luck either. The doors of the salon have walked, meaning Eric can't open. He is pounding on the glass windows, but it's no good. The pains are simply too strong. The Ininga lists again, groaning violently as water surges across the deck. And that's when I told Eric, I think we need to get away from this thing. In the moment we cleared is when she rolled over, she capsized and rolled over and dropped down. It's mid-morning 90 miles of the coast of Key West, Florida.

The ocean shimmers, its turquoise waters glowing as it's, lit from all angles. Johnny Savage and Captain Eric Bingham tread water, watching as the final remnants of the Inninga slip beneath the surf, leaving only a spool of bubbles in its wake. A few minutes later, the surface is calm once more. There is no evidence that a boat was ever here. There certainly aren't any others in the vicinity. There's barely even a bird in the sky. Johnny and Eric are alone, helpless in shark-infested waters. Soon debris begins popping up around them as the ship dismantles under the ocean's enormous pressure. With a quiet splash, a cool box breaks the surface.

It's not a proper inflatable or the emergency beacon, but for now it's as close as they'll get to a lifeline. We grabbed that cooler. Each of us grabbed one handle on it. And then we kind of like wrapped our arms around each other. And perfect unison. We went into our Father, which art in heaven. How it be thy name. And we just kept saying the full Lord's prayer over and over and over again.

And you know what? When we opened our eyes after that prayer, the Aninga had popped back up. Their vessel, or what's left of it, has risen from the depths. The stern section floats beside them, upturned, crumpled and half-sunken, its exposed propellers and rudders glinting in the sun, but it floats. For now, it's a possible perch for Eric, a chance to get him out of the water, and then another stroke of luck. Just beyond the wreckage, Johnny spots his surfboard, still zipped safely in its bag. With his captain's blessing, he peels away from the cooler and starts swimming towards it.

Though he's barely gone a few meters when agony erupts across his skin. Looking wildly around, he quickly spots the rainbow sheen on the water's surface. Diesel. I knew where every cut was on my body when I hit the diesel fuel. Just that burning sensation, it's in my eyes, it's in my nose. It's in my nose and my mouth and my ears. Every scrape, every nick, every raw inch of skin ignites in stinging pain. His throat burns, and he starts to choke on the fumes.

Again, Johnny turns to the heavens. That prayer was, please Lord, do not let me throw up. I can't afford to lose this food that's in my stomach because I'm going to need the energy for the fight. Johnny grits his teeth and battles them. through. Eventually, he is clear of the noxious fuel, and the surfboard is within reach. Pushing himself out of the water, he clambers on, his skin slick with sweat. The board, combined with its padded case, should keep him afloat. However, the moment he shifts his weight, it's obvious

that something is wrong. Passing his hand over the bag's surface, the problem is clear. The surfboard has snapped in half. It'll float for now, but it won't last. With no time to waste, Johnny turns, eager to make it back to Eric. But once again, there is now nothing but a blanket of blue ocean. The stern has vanished back beneath the surface. And so it seems as the captain. Johnny frantically scans the water, his eyes roaming over the dancing waves. And then I saw him in the water. He was holding on to the cushion one of the bench seats on the bridge. They didn't have much buoyancy to it at all, but it was something to hang on to.

Johnny paddles back to Eric, and together they begin to formulate a plan. More and more debris from the sunken ship is rising to the surface, stretching out in a vast line like a breadcrumb trail on the water. Somewhere along that line might be what they really need. The emergency beacon or the life raft, something, anything that could increase their odds of making it through this. So I had a discussion with Eric and he said, all right, go ahead, buddy. And so I started traveling down that line. Johnny begins paddling again, balanced awkwardly on the broken surfboard, drifting down the scatter of debris.

familiar items flowed past. The juicy steak fillets they'd packed that morning, still in their plastic bag. Fishing rods. Chunks of the shattered hull. At one point, the main debris trail splits into two separate lines. Johnny picks a lane and follows it, eyes fixed on every scrap. When he reaches the end empty-handed, he doubles back on himself and tries the other line. He paddles right to the end where the wreckage finishes and an endless ocean takes over but again

he finds nothing that can help the EPUB radio beacon and the life raft haven't surfaced or if they have they're not here it's a major blow mission failure and you know my captain gave me an order

and I couldn't accomplish it the thoughts were starting to come in my head of being a failure being a loser You know, I mean, I was part of that decision to not put this E-Purban life raft in the cockpit. Cursing his own past decisions, Johnny battles through the water on his broken surfboard, eventually returning to Eric.

When he gets there, the captain has better news for him. More debris has surfaced right next to him. Among the scraps of stern and bow, he's managed to salvage some valuable items. He holds up two, life jackets. These are the lightweight sort designed for inland fishing trips rather than an extended stay in the ocean, but they're better than nothing. And perhaps even better still, Eric has found the canister of flares. If a boat happens to pass by, they'll at least have a way

of trying to draw its attention. Now all they can do is wait. So Eric, he had his sunglasses on when we went down, so he gave me his sunglasses and he had his ball cap on. So he would kind of watch the horizon and I would look up in the sky and it's funny the one thing that we did not want to do was look down because when you look down you just see it's like an endless depth and then you start remembering that you're part of the food chain for a while they simply bob on the surface of the ocean trying to allow fear to take hold in fact despite their desperate situation johnny still manages to appreciate the wonder of what's around the water It was absolutely beautiful.

I mean, it was like that purply blue Gulf stream, deep Caribbean water. It was funny that we did take the time to smell the roses and lift each other up. Time slips by, an hour, then two. And then, quite suddenly, there is a sound from above, a low mechanical hum. Johnny looks to the heavens and tries to track the sound. Emerging from a scrap of wispy cloud is a plane. Seeing the plane was so super excited. It's like, you know, here we go over, here's our rescue.

But the plane was up there pretty high. I imagine they were probably flying to Cancun. Rapidly, they open the flare kit and ignite one. A vivid red plume of smoke hisses and billows skyward as the plane inches closer. surely the pilot or a bored passenger gazing out of the window must see the bright crimson mist rising from the ocean but the aircraft doesn't slow down it doesn't change its course it passes over

and simply vanishes into the distance the smoke is carried off on the wind and soon johnny and eric are back to square one watch the plane go over the horizon And then it was another one of those lows and feeling pretty crushed because, you know, putting so much hope into that being what was going to save us. That being our salvation. They resumed their positions, floating, stubbornly not looking down. However, there is less conversation now.

It seems like conditions around them are starting to mirror their darker move. too. The sky, once a canvas of soft blue and wispy clouds, is fast becoming a blanket of gray. The wind strengthens. The sea, as calm as glass just moments before, begins to churn. White foamy crests break around them. What we did not know was at 9 o'clock, there was a call that had gone from Cancun to Key West. And that call was this, don't send any boats, it's getting bad. So that's a big deal. Typically, they give us the conditions and the cap mature decision,

what you're going to do, you're going to come or not. That's your call. But for the to say, don't send any boats, it means it's very, very bad. So that storm would develop and that storm was en route to us. Jostled by the waves, sticking together becomes an enormous challenge. And then, in the middle of the afternoon, Eric shouts through the fierce wind. He sees something on the horizon amid the chaos of the heaving water. Seeing that white speck on horizon, there was such a unique train of thoughts that went along with that, because knowing it was a ship, well, first of all,

it's like, which way is it? Which direction is it traveling? Is it going away from us? And then to watch that shape grow and grow and grow. We knew that it was getting closer. They watch intense silence as the ship sails towards them. Soon they can make out markings on the hull. It's a cruise ship, an enormous one. This is good news. A ship that size means people, hundreds, maybe thousands. All it takes is one person at the railing, one child with binoculars, one crew member doing a scan of the deteriorating surroundings.

There's always people looking off the back of the ship. Somebody's got to see us. Johnny waits for the perfect moment until the ship is within range. As he crests a wave, he strikes the flare. Eric lights one too. Crimson smoke once more curls into the gray sky. Someone must be looking their way, able to see the two drowning men in the middle of the Gulf. But the ship sails on.

Johnny and Eric watch as their salvation once again passes them by. Its vast outline begins to shrink until it's imperceptible through the storm. That was the beginning of the darkness. That's when it was, you know, you're going to die out here, and just the thoughts began to manifest. You're a loser, your failure. You're going to either get eaten by a shark or you're going to drown. I knew it was only a matter of time.

I'll surely only happen if the men take matters into their own hands. Flares aren't working. The life jackets are soaked through and starting to tear. Conditions are quickly becoming unmanageable. Worse still, Eric is losing feeling in his lower half as hypothermia sets in. It's impossible to know how much time he has left. One thing is clear. They have to act.

That was the first time Eric and I had a discussion that wasn't, I want to say totally uplifting, because it was the conversation was, if we don't find the EPIR and life raft, we're going to die out here. Eric gives an order. Johnny needs to go and search the debris field again for the EPIRB or the life raft, for anything that can help them. It may seem like Eric is forcing Johnny to do all the hard work, but there is probably a selflessness in the captain's orders. I think it was a situation or was he was trying to save me.

Because if I found the life raft and never would have been able to get it back to him against that wind and that current and the seas. But I think it was, I truly think he was sending me out and save myself. I knew that if I found the EPUB, they were going to home in on my position and not his position. It's just there was like, even though it was an act that hadn't been performed yet, there was still like such an extreme thought of the guilt of routine, you know, or crew, we're brothers. and you don't leave a brother behind. Whatever Eric's intentions, he's given an order. An order Johnny, as mate, is obliged to follow,

no matter how difficult. Once more, he points the battered surfboard towards the debris and begins paddling into the swells. The tone of that search was totally different than the initial search. A inertial search, it was calm. Now we've got some seed. these that have built, probably blowing, you know, getting closer to 20 knots of wind, which is pretty rough, especially when you have a situation where you have the wind and the swell

going in different directions. Makes it like a wash machine. And knowing that that line that was there would soon be going away. The debris is no longer in a manageable trail. It is scattered in a vast field, carried this way and that in the swell. Finding the EPUB and the life raft is like searching for a needle in a constantly moving haystack. Johnny battles through the white caps for as long as he can, but it soon becomes clear that finding the life-saving equipment is not going to happen. Broken and exhausted, he makes a fateful decision. So I just kind of gave up and just stopped and just floated.

I was a long way out, and that's when they were just the man of cessation. You're going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die, you're a loser. And then I finally had made a decision, and that decision was I wasn't going to eat by shark. pretty much knew the bull shark's going to rip us to pieces. So it made my plan, you drown myself. Mind made up, Johnny utters a final desperate prayer, begging for forgiveness.

He unbuckles his life jacket and shrugs it off, letting it fall into the sea. He looks skyward one last time, and then at the ocean, at the vast stretch of blue that he has adored his whole life. A wave builds and he follows its progress. It's coming right for him. Rather than try to avoid it, he closes his eyes and lets it hit.

He tumbles from the surfboard. For a moment he is caught in the froth of the wave and then he is gone. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot trackside. So being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Pre-sale tickets for future events subject to availability and vary by race. Turns and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca slash Y-Anex.

The tumbling wave consumes Johnny. The salt water blinds him. It floods his ears and fills his lungs with fire. His body is tossed around as if he's nothing more than a piece of driftwood. He has no sense of up or down, only the relentless spinning of the ocean as it swallows him whole. But despite all this, something strange begins to happen. It was in that process of rolling under that my body filled with a sense of warmth and strength. It scared me to tell you the truth.

It freaked me out like, whoa, what the world's going on here? Maybe it's adrenaline, maybe it's something more. Whatever it is, it drives him upwards. Kicking hard, Johnny breaks through the surface. Gasping in lungfuls of the open air, he retrieves his life jacket, rides a wave, and then hauls himself back onto the surfboard. As he wipes the salt water from his eyes, he hears something. I heard a voice.

over my shoulder. John, you spend a lot of time out here, pick your line and paddle it. It was a raging ocean, a raging sea with just that sound of the waves and the wind consume everything. But it was soft and it penetrated through it. And I was able to find a line and see it and paddle. He does as the voice says, trying to find a path through the chaos. But it's not easy. Wind shrieks across the water and the waves rear up like beasts.

Fighting the seas, get knocked off the surfboard, trying to climb back on it and continuing to go. Just knock down, get back up, knock down, get back up. And sometimes like they would come out of nowhere and I remember just like doing my best to get a gasp of air before getting rolled. Again and again, you struck down. Again and again, he rises. Finally, he sees a shape in the distance. Eric, he paddles hard. And as he draws closer, he notices something floating near his captain.

As I made it back to him, I saw something kind of white-ish floating. So I kind of diverted to that, and actually it was the master state room mattress. It was like, you know, one of those mindsets of, man, tonight we can get up on top of that thing, and it'll keep our stuff from hanging down when it's feeding time for the sharks. Eric has a surprise in store for Johnny too. While he was away, something else resurfaced, Johnny's rucksack. Inside are some wetsuits, another miracle.

Johnny hands Eric the thickest one. Given the creeping hypothermia, this added warmth could mean the difference between life and death. If Eric can retain what's left of his core temperature, Then maybe he still has a shot. Maybe they both do. I didn't really talk to Eric about what had happened out there, but there was an optimist that we knew we were going to make it. I didn't know how this was going to happen,

but we were going to live through this. And that just reinforced a sense of resiliency. They decide to tie themselves together with the leash from the surfboards bag to create a lifeline. Now, when the waves pull them under, they can write each other. But it's not just the water they have to contend with. As dusk begins to fall, the ocean seems to fill with wildlife.

Most are beautiful fish, their colorful bodies flitting this way and that beneath the surface. At first, their eyes are peeled for sharks, the telltale movement of a large shadow or a sinister fin poking above the waves. But then they spot another creature, one that poses a different kind of deadly threat, the Portuguese man of war. If you don't know what that is, that's a jellyfish on steroids. We knew that if we got wrapped up in one of those, that it would take too much out of us with all the stings.

And so when we'd see one come in, we would dodge left or right. Just the teamwork out there was just amazing. With as much calm and composure as they can muster, the men weave around the syphonophore's enormous sprawling tendrils. The leash is working well, keeping them together. It's only when Johnny spots something on a nearby wave that he suggests unhooking himself. I remember looking over and seeing a flare flight, and I told Captain Eric, I was like, you know, that might be a good flare. I think I need to go get it.

Eric agrees. All the other flares have been used up or washed away. This could be their last chance of attracting attention should a boat or plane pass by. Detaching himself, Johnny pushes away from his captain and battles against the waves. Eventually, he reaches it and quickly checks if it's operational. It seems to be. I was so excited. I'm like, it's good, Eric, it's good, it's good. And as I was screaming, that it's good, I could tell he started screaming.

But I couldn't make out the words because of the wind. So at that moment, that's when I just started digging to him as hard as I could, swimming towards him. I thought he was getting attacked by sharks. The sight of Eric screaming and thrashing in the water acts like a starting pistol Johnny's worst fears, it seems, are now being realized using every last dreg of energy

he surges forward towards his captain in a matter of minutes he's close enough to Eric to hear what he is shouting these are not cries of pain but elation As I got closer to him that's why I can hear and scream it's a fish boat it's a fish boat It's a fish boat.

A 50-foot vessel cuts through the water ahead of them. It's white hull shining like a beacon. Johnny has one chance to get the boat's attention. One chance to get it right. He tears open the last remaining flare, his eyes never leaving the boat. He waits for the rise of a wave and then sets it off. Red smoke pours into the sky. Time stands still.

And then I all of a sudden just heard this, wow, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, and turn around and look to see the bow. So it was kind of funny because initially it was like, we're rescued. Then it was like, oh, no, I hope you see this because it's not he'll chop us up. The boat looms perilously close, but it stops short and swings around. A mate runs onto the deck and pushes open the tuna doors at the back, usually used when hauling in prize fish. Johnny approaches, and then, after hours of torment, the ocean finally gives him a helping hand.

The mate had opened that door in a white cat pit, and it kind of washed me in, and I felt so guilty for getting him before my captain. Johnny scrambles to his feet and shoves past the mate. He kneels by the tuna doors and reaches for Eric, wrestling him on board. The doors close behind him. And the two men claps onto the deck, breathing heavily. They're finally safe. The mate offers a steadying shot of rum, but all they want is water. Dehydrated and shaking, they gulp it down. The mate then offers towels and dry clothes for the men.

The cobbled together jumper and trousers don't quite fit the six-foot-tall Johnny. But this helps break the tension, as laughter rings around the cabin at his appearance. When the captain arrives to check on his guests, a look of recognition spreads across his face. Incredibly, he and Eric go way back. After hearing their story, the captain explains his extremely lucky presence in the area. He had just missed the dire weather warnings from earlier that day, the ones instructing boats not to leave the harbor. They had pulled out just before 9 o'clock. just before that call. With that timing, they missed that notice that came in from Cancun that said

don't send any boats. That was the first miracle. The second was them finding each other in incredibly tempestuous seas and powerful currents. Eric and Johnny thank their rescuers profusely. It's time to get back to dry land. The boat continues to Cancun where it docks safely. Johnny calls home and offers a tearful report of his harrowing day. He also discusses a problem with his mother. With his passport, wallet, and any other documentation lost at the bottom of the sea, getting back into the U.S. isn't going to be straightforward. My mom was incredible.

She was on the phone with our local senators and just like, hey, get my kid back. And so the American consulate in Cancun actually came to the first. to bring us letters to get us back into the United States. The next day, wearing borrowed clothes and carrying bin bags of salvaged gear, Johnny and Eric bought a flight home. Despite suffering from the beginnings of hyperfirmia, both men go on to make a full recovery. But psychologically, coming to terms with what happened, takes more time. Rogue waves are so rare and so deadly,

But there's no one Johnny can turn to who truly understands. Survivors are almost unheard of. There are no meetings he can attend, no shared experiences. Instead, he finds solace in an unlikely place. One of the documentaries that I watched was a BBC Horizon episode about Rogue Waves. And I wish I could tell the guy that wrote that or produced it or whoever came up with that concept of that video, thank you. because they've really helped to give me a lot of healing. It was so informative to learn this stuff and to know that it wasn't alone.

On reflection, Johnny says he credits his survival to two things. The first is years of experience at sea, which gave him the mental preparation he needed when disaster struck. Preparation is huge, and what we do with our time is really big. So all these years fishing out of Virginia Beach boats are slower. back then. So it was like a three-hour run. I had a choice. I could sleep the whole time, or I could just think and try to make myself better in some way. And so what I would do is I would kind of review in my head if this happened, what would I do? If this, I would run the

drills. So the day that it did happen, I was prepared. And Johnny believes the second key component to his survival was faith, a steadfast belief in a higher power, and in the importance of struggle as a means to bettering ourselves. things are bigger than us learn as you go through the challenges in life because we don't know the purpose if we cut the struggle short sometimes we're cutting the lesson short in the next episode in the next episode earthquakes avalanches and a superstorm combine atop canada's and we meet the intrepid climber who endured it all. Natalia Martinez has mountaineering in her blood,

but during a solo trip up Mount Logan, a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, will see her face her greatest challenge yet. Over the course of several days, Natalia will encounter a multitude of natural disasters. Time and time again, she'll have to call on all her grit and experience to keep struggling on,

as she locks horns with the immense power of Mother Nature. That's next time on real survival stories. Listen right now without ads by joining Noisa Plus.