We sometimes hear about finding a needle in a haystack. It is used as a way to say that something almost impossible is being done. Although it would be practically impossible to find a literal needle in a haystack, it may even be more difficult to find a single man who was missing in the middle of the ocean. When you stop to think about the vastness of the ocean, it is profoundly incredible. If you find yourself lost in the ocean, you often feel as if you have been handed a death sentence. For one 62-year-old sailor off the coast of Florida, such a death sentence turned into an unbelievable chance at life.
Stuart Bee was out on a trip at the end of November and when he didn’t come home, his family got concerned about his welfare. He was out on a 32 foot motorboat, Stingray and they began a search shortly after being contacted. The US Coast Guard was using a Hercules C-130 aircraft, but as you can imagine, there was a lot of area to cover in a short amount of time. After all, a 62-year-old man could not hope to survive very long out on the water. Amazingly, they found him clinging to his capsized boat, 43 hours after he was reported missing. It’s an incredible story of survival that is almost too good to be true, but we have the pictures to prove it.
The trip started from Cape Marina in Port Canaveral on November 27. Bee is an experienced sailor, but there was a mechanical issue that may have caused his craft to sink. When he woke up in the middle of the night, water was coming into the boat and he had to go to the front hatch.
When a container ship found him, he was hanging on for dear life. That was 43 hours later and the first thing that he asked his rescuers is what day it was! They were able to spot him because he had taken off his shirt and was waving it to help them find him.
I guess all’s well that ends well!