Viral X (Formerly Twitter) video shows Coast Guard pilot Lt. Ian Logan and his crews set out to search the waters off Longboat Key after Hurricane Milton struck the western Florida coast, but didn’t anticipate finding anyone needing rescue. The storm had already swept through the area, and Logan expected the mission to be routine. However, the crew soon discovered a man clinging to life in an improbable situation—floating 30 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, holding onto a cooler.
“We thought it might've been a buoy,” Logan told ABC News. “I remember looking down and seeing the strobe and like seeing him holding on to the cooler. So once we pulled up in that 50-foot hover right next to the guy, we're like, 'Oh my gosh, he's on like a cooler that's opened up and he's just floating on it,' which is insane.”
The man had set out to sea early Wednesday to work on repairs to his disabled boat, located about 20 miles off John's Pass, a barrier island near St. Petersburg, according to the Coast Guard. As he attempted to return to shore, his boat became disabled again, leaving him stranded. He contacted the Coast Guard.
{{/usCountry}}The man had set out to sea early Wednesday to work on repairs to his disabled boat, located about 20 miles off John's Pass, a barrier island near St. Petersburg, according to the Coast Guard. As he attempted to return to shore, his boat became disabled again, leaving him stranded. He contacted the Coast Guard.
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However, as Hurricane Milton bore down on Florida’s coast, weather conditions rapidly worsened. The Coast Guard advised the man to wear a life jacket and stay with the vessel’s emergency position-indicating radio beacon. The last contact they had with him was at 6:45 p.m. ET that evening.
Man found alive after days adrift, hair matted with salt
By the time Logan and his crew located the man, his boat was nowhere to be seen, and he had resorted to using the cooler as a flotation device. “I didn't believe it at first. There are a lot of questions going through my head. So I paused for like, 10 seconds, as we're making this turn, going to make our approach to the water,” Logan explained.
“And I'm like, 'Are you sure?' And the swimmer is like, 'Yes, he's waving his hands at us like, this is the guy.' And I remember all of us are like, 'My goodness, I can't believe we're so excited that we found this guy.' Like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
When the Coast Guard swimmer pulled the man up from the water, Logan described, “I look back over my shoulder and he's over my back right shoulder and I see this guy -- hair looks like the Castaway movie, where he's covered in salt.”
“He's got a life vest on, he's soaked. And at that point, it really set in, like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe we just found this guy.'”