The coast is clear for two Floridian teens.
Two days after friends Avery Bryan and Eva Aponte, both 16, were rescued after being stranded off the Florida coast for over 16 hours, Levy County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Scott Tummond detailed their harrowing experience at sea.
According to Tummond, the teens were paddleboarding from the island of Atsena Otie Key to Cedar Key on March 17. However, their half-mile trip took a disastrous turn when the water’s powerful currents carried them off their path.
“It was rough, I mean rough out there,” Tummond told TODAY on March 20. “We’re talking 6-foot seas with gusting winds. And really cold. Water temperatures got down to the high 30s overnight.”
TODAY reported that Avery and Eva, who weren’t wearing life jackets, floated “14 nautical miles” off their original course and were left stranded on their inflatable paddle board for over 16 hours. The duo were soon reported missing, and a search effort team—consisting of the U.S. Coast Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife, Levy and Citrus County Sheriff’s offices, and local volunteers—began an overnight search, per Florida’s WCJB-TV News.
The ordeal ended on a liberating note March 18, when three fishermen—Will Pauling, Russell Coon, and Alex Jefferies—found the duo on a shallow marsh near Yankeetown, a small town in the state’s northside, that morning.
Another volunteer, Gray Bartell, then transported Avery and Eva back to land on his airboat, noting the girls were visibly shaken up by the incident.
“They got very quiet when I asked about what happened, so I started joking around with them,” Bartell told TODAY, adding his 8-year-old son Brody helped calm the teens down by offering them a snack. “And that’s when they really started to relax.”
The duo (who haven’t publicly talked about the experience) were later reunited with their families and taken to the hospital, where they were treated for “hypothermia and dehydration” before being discharged on March 20. As for what kept them afloat, Bartell noted the teens’ commitment to staying on the paddle board is “the reason they are alive.”
Tummond echoed the sentiment, saying, “What Mom and Dad taught them — it stuck. Thank God they were able to remember some of those life skills.”
