Two Florida teens stranded at sea rescued by boat named 'Amen' after they prayed to God to send help
Two Florida teens admitted their faith in God was restored after they were rescued from the ocean last month by a yacht named "The Amen".
Tyler Smith and Heather Brown, two 17-year-old student athletes at Christ's Church Academy, during an appearance on "Fox and Friends" on Saturday, revealed that they never anticipated a strong current could sweep them away as they swam offshore from Vilano Beach, near St. Augustine, Fox News reports.
The pair had been celebrating senior skip day but got caught in a current while swimming at Vilano Beach.
“We’re teenagers. We don’t think about currents or anything like that,” Smith said. “We’re like, 'oh we can do this easy', so we just start swimming out.” The two high school seniors became stranded in the ocean for more than two hours and were almost two miles from the shoreline. As the waves became rougher, the red buoy they were relying on as a point of reference became out of reach, causing them to lose hope. The harsh weather conditions began wearing them down as they shivered uncontrollably and their skin turned pale.
Smith said his legs had already begun to cramp. “You can’t swim anymore because both of your legs are cramped. You’re hopeless," he said.
Seeing no hope of survival, he turned to prayer.
“I started to cry out to god, like, please send something, please send someone or some miracle to come save us because I still want to see my family again,” Smith said.
That's when a white yacht appeared about 200 yards from the embattled pair.
“At some point, it felt like it came out of nowhere. We had seen a couple of boats pass really far away but when I looked up, I saw this big boat. It was a really nice boat. It was already closer than the other ones were from the start and I just had this feeling that I knew we were getting out of there,” Brown said.
She then waved a stick she had found floating on the surface at the boat and Captain Eric Wagner quickly spotted them. Wagner and his crew were able to pull the desperate duo to safety.
In a conversation with FOX 30, Wagner said, "Overall the wind, waves, and engines, we thought we heard a desperate scream. Exhausted and near the end, the boy told me he called out for God's help. Then we showed up."
“The first words that came out of my mouth were, 'God is real,'" Brown told WJAX.
“God saves,” Smith remarked on Fox, recounting the life-threatening incident on Saturday. He later cried in the hospital amazed they survived, WJAX reported.
"There were too many coincidences, in my opinion, for this to be a coincidence," Wagner told CNN. "I truly believe it was divine intervention. It had nothing to do with me. I was just put there at the right place at the right time, and I did the same thing anyone else would have done, pulled them aboard."