Florida boater rescues kayaker stranded at sea for hours, rescue video goes viral

By Tara Jakeway

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    FORT PIERCE, Florida (WPBF) — Davey Wright put his kayak in the water on June 27, thinking he would go out for a short fishing trip. At a sand bar two and a half miles out, he lent his kayak to a fellow boater who he says must have somehow damaged it; because hours later all alone, paddling home, it began to sink.

“As I ran out of energy and as a storm kicked up it just got worse and worse and worse and basically I had to let go of every worldly possession,” Wright said.

Wright’s kayak loaded with fishing equipment started taking on water at around 11 p.m. Alone 2 miles out in the pitch black he was sinking faster than he could paddle. Stuck without a clear path through the schools of bait and their predators, Wright’s training as a brown beret with the United States Army kicked in.

“Super cold, teeth chattering, muscles locked, that happened hours ago, so I’m pre-hypothermia, hypothermia,” Wright said.

Five hours in, disoriented and dehydrated, he said he had made his peace with dying at sea. Seconds later, he spotted a boat bow and with all his energy, he called out his last shot in the dark.

“I was screaming mayday, mayday, I’m a fisherman in the water I have no vessel,” Wright said. And by some miracle that vessel turned around.

Capt. Tom Korinek, also known as Tom Trawler, was at the wheel.

“I started panning the water saw like a brown puffy jacket and just two hands sticking out of the water.” Trawler said.

The captain threw a life sling to Wright and hoisted him to the swim platform. Then, grabbed his phone and videoed the surreal moment.

“It was just wrong place, wrong time and then a lifeline through someone that was receptive to be there,” Wright said.

And the captain wasn’t even supposed to be there, but a mechanical issue delayed Trawler’s trip putting him at sea hours later than planned.

“I had no business being out there at 4 o’clock in the morning,” Trawler said.

“It was just some kind of universal communication that’s all I can say,” Wright said.

It was that communication that kept him alive.

“I know that I saw he was going to die if I didn’t keep him talking,” Korinek said.

The captain got the Army veteran back to the dock in Fort Pierce. Days later, they had a reunion on that same dock where they celebrated a brand new friendship forged at sea.

“You are my guardian angel, Tom. Thank God you were there,” Wright said to his new best friend.

The duo are now planning a business venture together to teach people about safety at sea. The rescue video was posted to TikTok which now has more than five million views.

The rescue vessel’s name was very fittingly: “Back in a Minute.”

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