CEDAR KEY, Fla. (WFLA) — Two young girls are lucky to be alive after being stranded on their paddleboard overnight in the waters off Cedar Key in Florida.
The Levy County Sheriff’s office reported the girls missing Monday evening after they tried to paddleboard to Cedar Key.
Instead, wind and current blew them well south of their intended destination.
Will Pauling is a charter fishing captain in the Yankeetown area and convinced two friends to go searching for the girls early Tuesday morning.
“We have kids ourselves, and we wanted to get out there and, obviously, try finding them, and with the cold temps last night, figured it would be pretty difficult,” Pauling said.
The men knew a general area where they would start searching, but they said something guided them directly to a small island where the girls were.
“It took us 30 minutes from the boat ramp basically,” Alex Jeffries said. “We almost, in a weird way, drove straight to them.”
They said the girls were cold, thirsty and hungry but were in good spirits.
“They were really lighthearted about the situation for what it was, nice to have a good attitude in a bad situation,” Jeffries said.
The men had to carry the girls to their boat because their feet had been cut up by sharp oyster shells.
“They were stuck on their board, they couldn’t get off their board because every which way was oysters, and if you are around here, oysters are very sharp,” Jeffries said.
Thankfully, the men had brought a few supplies to help.
“They were still on the raft, frozen,” Jeffries said. “Luckily, we brought some towels, snacks and waters and stuff and kind of helped them get a little bit comfortable.”
The men said searching for the girls was just the right thing to do.
“If we have the ability to find them, let’s give it a shot,” said Russ Coon, who was also part of the search effort. “What have we got to lose? And there was so much more to gain because when we did find them, there was literally nobody around us.”
The girls were returned to their family.