January 9, 2025 • 33 mins
Please enjoy this guest edition of The Dana Show from our friends at The Miracle Files Podcast.
If you're a fan of true crime but crave a dose of inspiration instead of tales of darkness, The Miracle Files is your perfect alternative. With the same storytelling intensity as true crime podcasts, The Miracle Files delves into the details of each miraculous story, exploring the people and circumstances that turned these moments into something unforgettable. Whether you believe in divine intervention or human perseverance, this podcast will leave you feeling uplifted and amazed.
Subscribe to the Miracle Files Podcast on your favorite podcast app.
Apple:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-miracle-files/id1714203488
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiiDoPFmjkRQAROeycjOw
In this episode, A father and son come face to face with an unmanned boat on a collision course in the open ocean, triggering a miraculous chain of events. Follow Sasha Scheller’s harrowing battle for survival after falling overboard without a life jacket, defying impossible odds. Discover the mystery of an unmanned vessel, a gripping fight for life, and the inspiring connections forged in the crucible of danger on the latest episode of The Miracle Files.
If you're a fan of true crime but crave a dose of inspiration instead of tales of darkness, The Miracle Files is your perfect alternative. With the same storytelling intensity as true crime podcasts, The Miracle Files delves into the details of each miraculous story, exploring the people and circumstances that turned these moments into something unforgettable. Whether you believe in divine intervention or human perseverance, this podcast will leave you feeling uplifted and amazed.
Subscribe to the Miracle Files Podcast on your favorite podcast app.
Apple:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-miracle-files/id1714203488
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiiDoPFmjkRQAROeycjOw
In this episode, A father and son come face to face with an unmanned boat on a collision course in the open ocean, triggering a miraculous chain of events. Follow Sasha Scheller’s harrowing battle for survival after falling overboard without a life jacket, defying impossible odds. Discover the mystery of an unmanned vessel, a gripping fight for life, and the inspiring connections forged in the crucible of danger on the latest episode of The Miracle Files.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Andrew stared back at the approaching boat in disbelief. It
was closing in on them, now less than fifty yards away.
How could they not see his boat. If they didn't
change course soon, Andrew feared they'd collide in the middle
of the ocean. This is the Miracle Files.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm Emily Jones and I'm Holly Worthington. We're two sisters
who love a captivating true story, but we're also seeking
more light in our lives.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
So we're on a mission to find and share unforgettable,
uplifting stories of God's miracles. We hope you'll join us
on this journey.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome back to the Miracle Files. This story is a
really good one.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, I love doing the interview for this one. I
always think that, you know, our most recent episode is
my favorite, but this one is just really, really interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's full of twists and turns. And it's called the
Mystery Boat for a reason because this has a lot
of mystery in it too, So.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
We won't give away any more details.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Right So here it is the Mystery Boat.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
It was a perfect day to go deep sea fishing
off the coast of North Carolina. The sun shone brightly
in a nearly cloudless summer sky. Andrew Sherman and his
twenty one year old son Jack headed out, like they
had done many times, to troll offshore near a place
called twenty three mile Rock. They cruised along slowly with
(01:37):
several baited lures hung from their boat, but found no fish.
They decided to head out further and further. They eventually
worked their way about thirty seven miles off shore, the
furthest they had ever gone out to fish. Hoping to
change their luck, the father and son duo decided to
take a break from trolling and dropped some lures to
(01:58):
the bottom of the ocean. Their boat drifted along, bobbing
above depths of one hundred and ten to one hundred
and fifteen feet of deep blue water. Nothing seemed out
of the ordinary on this beautiful summer day until Andrew
spotted a distant boat heading straight at them.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I looked out in the distance and heading dead center
towards our boat was another boat, and I was like,
what is going on here? We're in the middle of
nowhere and this guy is just running towards us.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
At that point, the stranger's boat was about two hundred
yards away from them. Andrew looked down at his rod
to reel it in.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I looked up again. The boat is still right on
our path one hundred and fifty to one hundred yards.
I looked back at Jack to see where he is
in terms of what he's doing, and I'm like, hey,
are you almost off the bottom? And he was like, yeah, yeah,
I'm almost off the bottom.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Andrew looked back at the boat. It was closing in
on them, now less than one hundred yards away and
still heading straight at them.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
And I say to Jack, you know, I can believe this.
We have some yahoo and he has no idea we're here,
and he's going to run straight into us.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
The mystery boat closed in on them. Jack finished reeling
in his lure. Andrew knew they had to move quickly.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And I went to turn the boat on, and there
was a brief moment where I thought to myself, I
really hope the boat doesn't, you know, have a problem.
And it turns on, no problem, because if not, this
guy's going to run into us.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Andrew turned the ignition to his relief, the engine fired up.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
We put the motor in year and we started puttering forward.
And as we powdered forward. This boat just passed within
ten yards or so of our stern.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
In disbelief, Andrew and Jack watched the boat drive past.
They thought it was strange that they hadn't noticed the
boat sooner, and wondered why the oh had almost run
straight into them. But stranger still was what they observed
as the boat drove past. Here's Andrew's son, Jack, explaining
what happened next.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
As the boat drove by, you could hear the radio
was playing on the boat. There was like music. He
had like five rods out or something, and he was trolling.
As it goes by. We look in the cabin and
there was no one behind the steering wheel.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And we're like, what the heck?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
And I just like super bizarre.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
The two men wondered if the boat's owner could be
down in the cabin unaware of how close they'd come
to colliding.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
So it's like goes by, we like yell at him
to try to get his attention, and there was no response,
So we like put our rods in the rod wolvers
and we took off after him. I think he was
going like eight or nine knots, so like ten miles fryar,
and we were coached up alongside him, and we had
an air horn and my dad dug that out and
he starts blasting air horn and kind of dropped next
(04:55):
to him, and there's no response, and we were like,
oh my gosh, like, what is someone like had a
heart attack or a stroke below deck? So we'd talk him.
We're like, if there's no response to the next two minutes,
we should probably go and try to board the boat.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Minutes ticked by with Andrew and Jack coasting alongside the
boat trying to get someone's attention with no response. So
a debate ensued between the father and son about who
would make the treacherous leap onto the mystery boat to investigate. Jack,
a midshipman at the Naval Academy, was younger and felt
he would be better to make the leap. Andrew feared
(05:32):
what Jack might find aboard the boat.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
You know, as we're having this joking conversation about who's
jumping in the boat, I actually did say to him
very seriously, are you prepared for what you may find
when you go on this boat.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Jack assured his father that he was prepared to deal
with whatever lay beyond the deck of the boat, but
he still couldn't help but wonder what he was about
to face.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Mcamp alongside, and he kind of like match the waves
and everything does that flamed, big, big adrenaline ross just
jumping in like somebody's boat forty miles off shore, and
you didn't know like anything. I was like, for sure,
there's gotta be some dead guy down here.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Jack made the leap and was stunned at what he found,
or perhaps more accurately, what he didn't find.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So he jumped on board and look, there's no way
in the deck. I'm like, all right, cool, and like
ease my way to the cabin, expecting to find something.
And the cabin's just completely empty. So I put the
boat in neutral, turn everything off, reeling off the lines.
I called my dad and like the boat's empty, and
my dad goes, are you sure, Like check again, it's
like a twenty boat. I'm like, Dad, it's like twenty
(06:35):
three feet I promised. There's like nothing here to see
and there's secret doors.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
No secret doors. But Jack did soon find some items
that alarmed both father and son, a wallet and a
life jacket. These articles spelled that one thing for entering
Jack man overboard, and even worse, man overboard without a
life jacket. Had this this man been fishing and somehow fallen,
(07:03):
All they had to go on was an empty boat
with some eerily important belongings on board. Beyond that, the
two men had no idea how long ago the boat's
captain might have gone over. It could have been hours ago.
If the boat's captain had survived the fall, it must
have been horrific to watch his boat drive off into
the distance without him. Andrew and Jack had a sinking
(07:26):
feeling that someone was likely out there forty miles from shore,
fighting for their life, if they were even still alive.
The father and son hurried and tied the boats up
together and radioed the coastguard. Here is the actual call
Andrew and Jack made.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Coastguard station, will right still beach. Coastguard station, right still beach.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Come in. That's hailing this coast guard.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Go ahead, Coastguard station, rightful beach. We just found a
boat at thirty three fifty one three sixty two north
seventy seven ten one seventy seven west.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
There is no one aboard rodacab Can you see a
description of the vessel in the vessel name.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Uh, we will check for vessel name. I can give
you the IV we found.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
On board Sheller s C H E L L E R.
When we found the vessel, it was doing about eight knots.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Roger Cabam. We copied seller is the last name?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Can you say again?
Speaker 5 (08:37):
First name?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
First name, Sasha s A s c Ha Roger Cabam,
Sasha Sheller, request you say again?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Was a boat moving when you came upon it?
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Boat was moving. It almost ran us down, so we
moved out of the way. Followed the boat, hit it
with four or.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Five blasts on an air horn. Waited about ten minutes.
My son found no one on board boat. Vessel number
is NC two six A three. He is an echo
and is a Nancy.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Roger that gab Other than the idea on board?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Did you see the other sign of any other person's
on the boat.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
We went over the entire boat.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
It's a twenty three foot Parker cutty cabin. No one
on board that we can find. Lines were all deployed
like he was fishing a spread.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Rod. That gab.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
The coast guard encouraged Andrew and Jack to access the
GPS system on the boat to see if they could
give any coordinates of where the boat might have come from.
With the two boats tied up and drifting together, Andrew
boarded the mystery boat and joined Jack in the cabin,
where they radioed the coastguard again with the history.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, so the boat leaves like a track essentially, so
you'd see where the boat left, where he started, where
he came out, and then he went like twenty three
miles off shore, actually the same place that we initially
were at, and then he began pushing off for further
and further. So we could see where the boat went.
We were able to like report those coordinates to the
coast guard. We probably talked to the coast guard for
(10:23):
twenty or thirty minutes on the radio, and the coast
guard was like okay, like Roger, thank you, and I
was like here in the conversation were like boys, like
there's a dude out here with no life jacket, all
what do you mean? Like thank you? So we're like golly,
like we gotta we should go try to find this guy.
We can't just let him drown out of here, which
we knew was pretty futile. Like, I mean, the chances
of I was I was convinced the whole time that
(10:45):
we were probably gonna wait for like a body to
gas up and then float back of the surface. Is
a chance of like floating out there with no life
jacket for a while, it's not too high.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
There are critical moments in life, forks in the road,
some call them, and this was one of those moments
for Andrew and Jack. They could go home and leave
everything in the hands of the coastguard, or they could
search for the man overboard, this stranger now known to
them as Sasha Scheller. The ocean is vast and endless.
(11:20):
Only those who spend time out on the ocean truly
understand how vast it is, and these two men understood
it well. They knew any attempt at rescue would be
almost impossible, like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
But they weren't the type of men to just give
up when someone could possibly still be alive and in
(11:40):
a desperate situation. In fact, as soon as the coastguard
said thank you, Jack said we're going to go find him.
They ended the call with the coastguard and immediately devised
a plan.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
So end up looking on the GPS we deemed he
was making normal fishing patterns. They're trolling around, and then
at one point we saw the boat kind of go
straight for a while and then it just kind of
veered off and it was like weird abnormal pattern where
it intersected our about a few miles later, and we're like,
that seems like where he may have fallen off, and
he did fall off, so to give this some more perspective.
(12:18):
On his GPS, he saw this dotted line, a trail
that came out, you know, fished around a little bit,
fished around a little bit, fished around a little bit,
got out to the area that we were in, and
then what it did was it made this looping turn
ross back on itself, curved back around, and then headed
(12:39):
back towards land and encountered us like right there.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
As Andrew and Jack mapped out the coordinates, they also
noticed that Sasha had several way points on the GPS system.
A waypoint happens when the GPS is manually touched and
is a point of reference kind of like dropping a
pin location for navigation purposes.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And not far from where we were, it had a waypoint,
so we knew that he had touched his screen there.
So we came up with a plan. Then I will
run Sasha's boat and Jack will run mine, and I
can see the GPS for Sasha. And I said, Jack,
I'm going to take you back to his last waypoint
(13:23):
where we knew he was on the boat. And when
we get to that waypoint, I want you to make
ever enlarging circles from that waypoint. Just keep going out
from that waypoint. I'm going to go back over here
to where the boat made this big loop, and I'm
just going to crisscross through that whole area. I mean,
I had no idea why I was doing it that way,
(13:44):
but anyway, that's what we did.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Jack traveled to the last waypoint for several minutes, he
made concentric circles around it, and then he spotted something
in the water.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, so you started a search, and I guess like
twenty or thirty minutes in, I saw this in the ocean.
But I found a pair of boots like floating the water.
It's regular deck boots he'd be fishing with. I scooped
those up, raided in the coast guard, raided into my dad,
and I thought, I'm like, oh my gosh, I did
his boots slip off from when he like drowned or something.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
While Jack saw the boots as a bad sign, Andrew
had a different thought.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So I was about three quarters of a mile from Jack,
searching through this big loop. I don't know why. It
wasn't based on anything really concrete, but I just thought,
if I had fallen overboard, I would take my boots
off because I could swim easier with my boots off.
And so that said to me he fell off and
he was still alive. And then for some reason, that
(14:43):
said to me between where he had touched the screen
and there was a straight line before it made this
big courage. I don't know why. In my mind I
thought he fell off somewhere in that straight long.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Andrew drove his boat back to the start of the
straight line and let his boat drift rifted south, which
made Andrew think that Sasha may have drifted south as well.
He chriss crossed over the line slightly to the north
and then back towards the south, scanning the horizon for
any signs of life. He took another turn and went
(15:15):
northward over the line and again headed south, and that's
when he saw it.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I all of a sudden saw this big splash on
the surface, probably like three hundred yards away, and I thought,
that is either a big fish or that is somebody.
And I sped the boat up as fast as it
could go cut the distance, and then I just saw
this hand come out of the water and reach across
in a big arc like that, and I just came
(15:42):
on the radio and I was like, Coast Guard Radio
station Wilmington, I have found him. I have found him.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Earlier that day, Sasha Sheller, an experienced swimmer, surfer, and fishermen,
had been out fishing on what started out to be
a perfect day. Sasha heard over the radio the other
fishermen were catching gaffer mahi mahi, which are very large
mahi mahis, and he saw several boats heading that way.
(16:12):
The waves were unusually calm, so he decided to drive
out further than normal until he reached about forty miles
off shore. Sasha had always been very safety minded, however,
he let his guard down just for a moment, and
a moment was all that it took.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
I was out fishing and I set up on my rigs.
Speaker 7 (16:37):
I was trolling them behind me, and it was calm,
and say beautiful, and I'm gonna take my life jacket
off just a little while and get some sun. And
that was the biggest mistake I ever made. So I'm
just cruising along. You're listening to some music, and this
is a part of a lot of people kind of
make fun of. So standing right here by a steerwheel,
(16:58):
and I had to relieve myself. So I turned to
the side of the boat right next to the steeringwheel,
did what I had to do, and when I was
turning back around to face the steeringwheel, my foot slipped
and I just rolled right over the side of the boat.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
He first tried to grab the side of the boat
without success. He had one last chance to grab the
back platform of the boat, but it was impossible with
the boat moving so quickly.
Speaker 7 (17:27):
That boat was gone in a matter of a minute.
I mean, when your whole body's in the water and
on your head's sticking up and you're watching that boat go,
it's a minute or two and you can't see it anymore.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
It's gone.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Sasha watched in horror as his boat got further and
further away. So much went through Sasha's mind in the
moments that followed. At one point he saw a boat
in the distance. He tried yelling and screaming as loud
as he could, but his hopes were quickly dashed as
the folk captain didn't see him and drove out of sight.
(18:04):
He was left alone with only his thoughts in what
felt like an endless see.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
I was pretty angry, pretty upset with myself. When I
started to talk about the details. Is when it kind
of floods back. You have a bunch of different thoughts
(18:34):
that go through your head. The first one was kids, Yeah,
you got to leave your kids. You thinking about your
children growing up without you.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (18:53):
Now that I'm older and mid forties, and I think
you started thinking about man, I don't have enough life insurance,
realizing what all this would do to them, And you
start thinking about long term, what your actions did and
what the consequences are.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
So that's why the anger was there.
Speaker 7 (19:12):
It was really anger at myself for the one simple
decision I made that risked everything.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
After several minutes of treading water, Sasha's fear and anger
gave way to thoughts of survival.
Speaker 7 (19:29):
I think your mind automatically turns itself onto preservation mode
so pretty fast, I would say fifteen to twenty minutes,
I was like, you know what, I know, I'm about
three miles away from where those other five boats were,
and that's where I remembered the swell direction. So I
started swimming in the direction of where those five boats were.
(19:52):
About every ten minutes or so, I ducked my head
underwater and listen. It's found travels much better underwater, so
i'd listened for boats. Yeah, every now and then. I
think two times I heard a boat, but they were
way off in the distance.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
So I just kept swimming, and after about an hour.
Speaker 7 (20:09):
Or so, I started trying to spot some star gas
of seaweed, And if you're not familiar, it's a seaweed
that floats. It has a little airsacks in it. So
I was going to take my shorts off and stuff
them with as much stargas as seaweed as possible, so
I had something to mentally hold on too if it
went into the night.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Agonizing hours pasted before he saw another boat.
Speaker 7 (20:33):
After two hours, I saw a boat coming towards me
at a high rate of speed, and then it started
leaving again, and I thought that was quite strange, But
then about five minutes later it was doing it again.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
It was coming towards me.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
And then when it happened the third time, I just
started kicking my legs as much as I could and
waving my arms and splashing water, just trying to get
anything to get attention. And then next thing you edded
boat speeding straight towards me and not so it was
probably five yards away from me. I realized it was
my boat and it was Andrew driving my boat.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
This is the point where Andrew called into the coastguard.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Coast Guard, does this parker over, I have found him.
Coast Guard, does this Parker? I have found him.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
And then at that point Jack heard all of that
on the radio and he raced to where we were.
I raced up to Sasha in the water, spun the
back of his boat around him, chuck the motor off,
ran to him. He was cramping up pretty badly, pulled
him up onto the swim platform on the back of
the boat. Initially just laid on a swim platform and
(21:40):
recovered for about thirty seconds, and then he was able
to get up and come into the back of the
boat and sit on the back of transom up the boat.
At that point Jack was there. He tied up to
the boat again. I asked Sasha if he had anything
on board, like gatorade, and he was like, yeah, I
had a cooler and he got my gatorade. He just
sat on the back of the boat for like ten
(22:01):
minutes and drank a gayarade and kind of recovered, and
you know, we were just like, I'm so happy to
see you, and he was like, I'm so happy to
see you, and it was Yeah, it was pretty special.
Marker from the coast Guard, Roger, good guy, that you
found one of those persons in the water.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
You have them on board and over you guys guard
rightful beat you guys guard rightful bee. I confirmed this
is Parker, we have him. He has safe on board.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Roger kap could you say to confirm he was the
only person on board in the boat?
Speaker 5 (22:36):
That's ten for only person on the beat.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
We asked Sasha how he felt when he realized he
was going to be rescued. This was his response.
Speaker 7 (22:55):
So, it's a crazy good feeling. I don't know if
I could put it in the words. I mean, it's
just to be able to relax and not realizing how
tense you actually were until I could grab a hold.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
Of that boat.
Speaker 7 (23:15):
I mean, you know, I'm in good shape, but as
soon as I grabbed that boat, my legs cramped up.
I mean, who knew how long I could have lasted,
could have been in those five minutes in my legs cramped,
who knows.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
But yeah, it's.
Speaker 7 (23:27):
Just such a mixed emotions of relief, ecstasy, and it's
kind of hard to describe. As then as my legs
became uncramped, now, just bear hug Andrew.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
It was truly a miracle that Sasha had been found.
Part of this miracle is that Sasha's boat had driven
directly at two men who were willing to do all
it took to find him. But even more miraculous is
how the boat ended up turning with out a captain
steering it from its original trajectory to drive straight at
Andrew and Jack.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
I think the coolest part of the story for me
is what Sasha got back home. He called us and
he said he just got back to my boat. Like,
I don't care at all, because you guys just saved
my life and everything. But did you guys take one
of the rods off the boat? I was trolling six
rods when I had Followen off and we were like, no,
he didn't pick any rods, So he went back at
his GPS and back to my dad was talking about
(24:28):
the way the boat was moving, initially where it made
big arc and then kind of shot on the straight
line where it had gone straight towards us. The rod
that he was missing was on his left out rigor,
which is where the boat turned towards And the only
possible explanation for why a rod would just raandly followed
an out rigor is if like a huge fish beyond belief,
(24:49):
grabbed the bait that he was trowling, pulled all the
line off the rod, like three four hundred yards, tilted
to the side to the rod. When someone bore his
out of the water, it was it'll pop out of
the outrigger, and the boat straightened out again directly on
a course straight towards us. So I think that is
like the craziest part of the story. I'm a math major,
(25:10):
So like random numbers, on the chances that we would
have seen his boat out there, the chance of his
boat going close enough to ours much less on the
direct trajector where we had to move our boat out
of the way. It's like point zero zeros like nine
or ten zeros like one percent. So it's just like
completely unbelievable that that would have happened.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Sasha agrees that this is the only way his boat
could have turned the way it did.
Speaker 7 (25:37):
So the interesting part is, about three quarters of a
mile or so after I fell out of the boat,
my boat started turning to the left, and then all
of a sudden it may in ninety degree turn. The
interesting part about that is is that I was missing
a fishing rod, one of the ones I was using
control with, and it happened to be on the same
(25:58):
side that that boat turned to on the left side. Yeah,
it's not like a river or lake, and there's not
a whole lot of debris out there, and a little
bit of sea weed's not gonna be able to pull
a boat. So the only real kind of explanation is
that I actually call a fish and they started taking
line out and drag, causing it to drift to the left,
(26:20):
and then when it got to the end of the
line where it's tied off on the reel, it was
enough to pull the boat. That changed the direction of
my boat to make it go towards Andrew and Jack,
which is pretty pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Sasha didn't grow up a religious man. He feels more
connected to nature than anything, and attributes his survival to
both nature and the courageous men who saved his life.
Andrew and Jack see things a little differently.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
It's like, there's no way that would have happened without
America or divine intervention. That's like it just wouldn't have happened,
you know, no way would have happened. It's like, why
do some miracles happened while like other super tragedy horrible
things happen. I think you get to press like that
I believe, but have like blind say, and just know
there's a higher power and a higher plan that you
(27:09):
don't fully understand. You may maybe using a higher power
and higher plan, like we're used and put in the
right place at the right time. I don't think any
like moral mind comprehend why miracle happens.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Andrew, Jack, and Sasha have all shared this experience with
the media and in various settings. Sasha has gone on
to emphasize how important safety gear is. He knows that
even the most experienced sports enthusiast can get into trouble
if they let their guard down. When it comes to safety.
His hope is that this experience may very well save
(27:44):
others' lives. Both Andrew and Jack received commendation medals from
the Coastguard, but these two heroic men are also incredibly humble.
Both men said, far more than any medals, they're grateful
for how this experience has changed the course of history
for not only Sasha, but Sasha's family.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I will tell you the most profound thing that came
out of this entire thing for me was it was
about a week later that we had Sasha and his
family and his parents to our house. And they came
and it was really funny. Sasha brought some gifts with him,
one of which was the castaway volleball, so that sits
(28:26):
in my health now. But his wife, during that visit said,
and I can never get through this easily. She said,
you know that day, you didn't just save Sasha, you
saved our family. I'm just thankful that we were put
(28:47):
in the right place at the right time. You know,
I've had the right skill set that we were able
to do something.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Oh man, can you imagine being out in the ocean
without a life, and you know, when you're almost forty
miles away from shore and no one in sight.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Oh my gosh, I would be so scared, terrifying. I
get scared in a lake thinking the fish is gonna
bite my toes me too, seriously, Like Jaws messed me up.
I still am traumatized.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
By that movie.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
And when you're in a lake there's no shark, thinking
about in the ocean, You're like, what is beneath me?
Speaker 2 (29:26):
It would be so scary.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, at that point you are completely helpless.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Right, And he was in really good physical health, but still,
I mean, you can't just swim forty miles into.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Shore against the current. Yeah, And in those two hours
he only had gone a mile and if he would
have kept swimming, everyone would have been gone for the day.
There was no hope.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Really yeah, he knew that too. He knew that the
boats were probably all going to be heading in soon
and that the chances of getting to them before they
left were pretty slim.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
And if they had left, I mean, yeah, he.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Was really smart. I do have to say, like when
he was talking about getting those seaweeds that he could
use to kind of help him feel like you had
something to hold on too, I thought, what a smart
thing to do. I don't know that my brain would
have ever gone there.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Kind of reminded me of that show Alone. If you've
seen Alone, and it's the survival show, how creative people
get when they're in a survival situation. Yeah, I thought
I would never have thought of that, but who knows
what you would think of when you're actually put out there.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
True. One thing that was really important to him was
to give a message about safety and to make sure
you use your safety equipment.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, and we have a SoundBite that we want to
play to honor his wishes of the message he wanted
to get across.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (30:43):
The reason why I like to talk about it is
to make people aware. I've got every creditation behind me.
I was a surfer of a lifeguard and went coast guard.
You know, I knew all the safety protocols and had
every kind of safety equipment you can imagine.
Speaker 6 (30:58):
It was just one really stupid decision.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
If I would have had that life jacket on that
I took off, there's a whistle.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
That boat would have heard me. With a whistle. I
had a VHF radio.
Speaker 7 (31:09):
All the boats within five miles would have heard me
on the VHF radio. Yeah, I mean, it would have
been a fifteen minute ordeal. So it's the big thing
I really want people to understand when I shared it
is regardless of what you're doing, if.
Speaker 6 (31:22):
It's snowboarding, if it's fishing in the ocean.
Speaker 7 (31:26):
If it's hiking in the mountains, safety equipment is relatively
expensive to the actual toys that you're using out there.
So get it and use it. Don't just have this
so you can say you have it, but actually use it.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I know he's gone around to several trainings and meetings
and has presented about his experience.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Well, and he very well could be saving lives by
sharing that message, So we definitely want to help him
spread that message.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah. You know, without that life jacket, the only way
he could have survived in the vast ocean is through
a miracle.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Yeah, I agree, And I just want to say, don't
you think it's incredible how this father and son went
so above and beyond?
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Yeah, I think that there are lots of people who
would just call in the coastguard report it and feel like, Okay,
I've done my duty.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Well, and who knows that the coastguard would have found him.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, in that instance, minutes were so crucial.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
And I thought it was so cool that when the
coastguard said Roger that thank you and just hung up,
that they were like, we're gonna go out and find
this guy.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Yeah, I wasn't so cool to have the coastguard call.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yeah, I feel like I'm eavesdropping listening.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
To this call. You can hear the elation in Andrew's voice.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
They were really smart too, the way they went about things.
But I'm also sure that they were given divine guidance
to find Sasha as well well.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Whether you attribute it to luck or you attribute it
to divine intervention. I'm grateful Sasha is alive.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I am too, and I'm sure his family is so grateful.
I'm sure Andrew and Jack, Yeah, they're heroes, they really are.
Thank you for joining us. If you have a miracle
to share, contact us at the miraclefiles dot com or
find us on Facebook.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
We'll post new episodes on the first day of each month,
and if you enjoyed this podcast, please share it and
leave us a review.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Join us next time as we discover more of God's miracles,
and don't forget to look for his light in your
own lives.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
If you'd like to support us on Patreon so we
can produce more episodes like this, go to patreon dot
com forward slash the Miracle Files. You'll get exclusive access
to photos, videos, articles, and other content you won't find
anywhere else. We'll also have live chats, and we'd love
to interact with you there. Thank you so much for
your support.
Andrew stared back at the approaching boat in disbelief. It
was closing in on them, now less than fifty yards away.
How could they not see his boat. If they didn't
change course soon, Andrew feared they'd collide in the middle
of the ocean. This is the Miracle Files.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm Emily Jones and I'm Holly Worthington. We're two sisters
who love a captivating true story, but we're also seeking
more light in our lives.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
So we're on a mission to find and share unforgettable,
uplifting stories of God's miracles. We hope you'll join us
on this journey.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Welcome back to the Miracle Files. This story is a
really good one.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, I love doing the interview for this one. I
always think that, you know, our most recent episode is
my favorite, but this one is just really, really interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's full of twists and turns. And it's called the
Mystery Boat for a reason because this has a lot
of mystery in it too, So.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
We won't give away any more details.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Right So here it is the Mystery Boat.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
It was a perfect day to go deep sea fishing
off the coast of North Carolina. The sun shone brightly
in a nearly cloudless summer sky. Andrew Sherman and his
twenty one year old son Jack headed out, like they
had done many times, to troll offshore near a place
called twenty three mile Rock. They cruised along slowly with
(01:37):
several baited lures hung from their boat, but found no fish.
They decided to head out further and further. They eventually
worked their way about thirty seven miles off shore, the
furthest they had ever gone out to fish. Hoping to
change their luck, the father and son duo decided to
take a break from trolling and dropped some lures to
(01:58):
the bottom of the ocean. Their boat drifted along, bobbing
above depths of one hundred and ten to one hundred
and fifteen feet of deep blue water. Nothing seemed out
of the ordinary on this beautiful summer day until Andrew
spotted a distant boat heading straight at them.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
I looked out in the distance and heading dead center
towards our boat was another boat, and I was like,
what is going on here? We're in the middle of
nowhere and this guy is just running towards us.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
At that point, the stranger's boat was about two hundred
yards away from them. Andrew looked down at his rod
to reel it in.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I looked up again. The boat is still right on
our path one hundred and fifty to one hundred yards.
I looked back at Jack to see where he is
in terms of what he's doing, and I'm like, hey,
are you almost off the bottom? And he was like, yeah, yeah,
I'm almost off the bottom.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Andrew looked back at the boat. It was closing in
on them, now less than one hundred yards away and
still heading straight at them.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
And I say to Jack, you know, I can believe this.
We have some yahoo and he has no idea we're here,
and he's going to run straight into us.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
The mystery boat closed in on them. Jack finished reeling
in his lure. Andrew knew they had to move quickly.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
And I went to turn the boat on, and there
was a brief moment where I thought to myself, I
really hope the boat doesn't, you know, have a problem.
And it turns on, no problem, because if not, this
guy's going to run into us.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Andrew turned the ignition to his relief, the engine fired up.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
We put the motor in year and we started puttering forward.
And as we powdered forward. This boat just passed within
ten yards or so of our stern.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
In disbelief, Andrew and Jack watched the boat drive past.
They thought it was strange that they hadn't noticed the
boat sooner, and wondered why the oh had almost run
straight into them. But stranger still was what they observed
as the boat drove past. Here's Andrew's son, Jack, explaining
what happened next.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
As the boat drove by, you could hear the radio
was playing on the boat. There was like music. He
had like five rods out or something, and he was trolling.
As it goes by. We look in the cabin and
there was no one behind the steering wheel.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And we're like, what the heck?
Speaker 3 (04:26):
And I just like super bizarre.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
The two men wondered if the boat's owner could be
down in the cabin unaware of how close they'd come
to colliding.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
So it's like goes by, we like yell at him
to try to get his attention, and there was no response,
So we like put our rods in the rod wolvers
and we took off after him. I think he was
going like eight or nine knots, so like ten miles fryar,
and we were coached up alongside him, and we had
an air horn and my dad dug that out and
he starts blasting air horn and kind of dropped next
(04:55):
to him, and there's no response, and we were like,
oh my gosh, like, what is someone like had a
heart attack or a stroke below deck? So we'd talk him.
We're like, if there's no response to the next two minutes,
we should probably go and try to board the boat.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Minutes ticked by with Andrew and Jack coasting alongside the
boat trying to get someone's attention with no response. So
a debate ensued between the father and son about who
would make the treacherous leap onto the mystery boat to investigate. Jack,
a midshipman at the Naval Academy, was younger and felt
he would be better to make the leap. Andrew feared
(05:32):
what Jack might find aboard the boat.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
You know, as we're having this joking conversation about who's
jumping in the boat, I actually did say to him
very seriously, are you prepared for what you may find
when you go on this boat.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Jack assured his father that he was prepared to deal
with whatever lay beyond the deck of the boat, but
he still couldn't help but wonder what he was about
to face.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
Mcamp alongside, and he kind of like match the waves
and everything does that flamed, big, big adrenaline ross just
jumping in like somebody's boat forty miles off shore, and
you didn't know like anything. I was like, for sure,
there's gotta be some dead guy down here.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Jack made the leap and was stunned at what he found,
or perhaps more accurately, what he didn't find.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So he jumped on board and look, there's no way
in the deck. I'm like, all right, cool, and like
ease my way to the cabin, expecting to find something.
And the cabin's just completely empty. So I put the
boat in neutral, turn everything off, reeling off the lines.
I called my dad and like the boat's empty, and
my dad goes, are you sure, Like check again, it's
like a twenty boat. I'm like, Dad, it's like twenty
(06:35):
three feet I promised. There's like nothing here to see
and there's secret doors.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
No secret doors. But Jack did soon find some items
that alarmed both father and son, a wallet and a
life jacket. These articles spelled that one thing for entering
Jack man overboard, and even worse, man overboard without a
life jacket. Had this this man been fishing and somehow fallen,
(07:03):
All they had to go on was an empty boat
with some eerily important belongings on board. Beyond that, the
two men had no idea how long ago the boat's
captain might have gone over. It could have been hours ago.
If the boat's captain had survived the fall, it must
have been horrific to watch his boat drive off into
the distance without him. Andrew and Jack had a sinking
(07:26):
feeling that someone was likely out there forty miles from shore,
fighting for their life, if they were even still alive.
The father and son hurried and tied the boats up
together and radioed the coastguard. Here is the actual call
Andrew and Jack made.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Coastguard station, will right still beach. Coastguard station, right still beach.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Come in. That's hailing this coast guard.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Go ahead, Coastguard station, rightful beach. We just found a
boat at thirty three fifty one three sixty two north
seventy seven ten one seventy seven west.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
There is no one aboard rodacab Can you see a
description of the vessel in the vessel name.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Uh, we will check for vessel name. I can give
you the IV we found.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
On board Sheller s C H E L L E R.
When we found the vessel, it was doing about eight knots.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Roger Cabam. We copied seller is the last name?
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Can you say again?
Speaker 5 (08:37):
First name?
Speaker 4 (08:39):
First name, Sasha s A s c Ha Roger Cabam,
Sasha Sheller, request you say again?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Was a boat moving when you came upon it?
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Boat was moving. It almost ran us down, so we
moved out of the way. Followed the boat, hit it
with four or.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Five blasts on an air horn. Waited about ten minutes.
My son found no one on board boat. Vessel number
is NC two six A three. He is an echo
and is a Nancy.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Roger that gab Other than the idea on board?
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Did you see the other sign of any other person's
on the boat.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
We went over the entire boat.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
It's a twenty three foot Parker cutty cabin. No one
on board that we can find. Lines were all deployed
like he was fishing a spread.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Rod. That gab.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
The coast guard encouraged Andrew and Jack to access the
GPS system on the boat to see if they could
give any coordinates of where the boat might have come from.
With the two boats tied up and drifting together, Andrew
boarded the mystery boat and joined Jack in the cabin,
where they radioed the coastguard again with the history.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, so the boat leaves like a track essentially, so
you'd see where the boat left, where he started, where
he came out, and then he went like twenty three
miles off shore, actually the same place that we initially
were at, and then he began pushing off for further
and further. So we could see where the boat went.
We were able to like report those coordinates to the
coast guard. We probably talked to the coast guard for
(10:23):
twenty or thirty minutes on the radio, and the coast
guard was like okay, like Roger, thank you, and I
was like here in the conversation were like boys, like
there's a dude out here with no life jacket, all
what do you mean? Like thank you? So we're like golly,
like we gotta we should go try to find this guy.
We can't just let him drown out of here, which
we knew was pretty futile. Like, I mean, the chances
of I was I was convinced the whole time that
(10:45):
we were probably gonna wait for like a body to
gas up and then float back of the surface. Is
a chance of like floating out there with no life
jacket for a while, it's not too high.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
There are critical moments in life, forks in the road,
some call them, and this was one of those moments
for Andrew and Jack. They could go home and leave
everything in the hands of the coastguard, or they could
search for the man overboard, this stranger now known to
them as Sasha Scheller. The ocean is vast and endless.
(11:20):
Only those who spend time out on the ocean truly
understand how vast it is, and these two men understood
it well. They knew any attempt at rescue would be
almost impossible, like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
But they weren't the type of men to just give
up when someone could possibly still be alive and in
(11:40):
a desperate situation. In fact, as soon as the coastguard
said thank you, Jack said we're going to go find him.
They ended the call with the coastguard and immediately devised
a plan.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
So end up looking on the GPS we deemed he
was making normal fishing patterns. They're trolling around, and then
at one point we saw the boat kind of go
straight for a while and then it just kind of
veered off and it was like weird abnormal pattern where
it intersected our about a few miles later, and we're like,
that seems like where he may have fallen off, and
he did fall off, so to give this some more perspective.
(12:18):
On his GPS, he saw this dotted line, a trail
that came out, you know, fished around a little bit,
fished around a little bit, fished around a little bit,
got out to the area that we were in, and
then what it did was it made this looping turn
ross back on itself, curved back around, and then headed
(12:39):
back towards land and encountered us like right there.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
As Andrew and Jack mapped out the coordinates, they also
noticed that Sasha had several way points on the GPS system.
A waypoint happens when the GPS is manually touched and
is a point of reference kind of like dropping a
pin location for navigation purposes.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And not far from where we were, it had a waypoint,
so we knew that he had touched his screen there.
So we came up with a plan. Then I will
run Sasha's boat and Jack will run mine, and I
can see the GPS for Sasha. And I said, Jack,
I'm going to take you back to his last waypoint
(13:23):
where we knew he was on the boat. And when
we get to that waypoint, I want you to make
ever enlarging circles from that waypoint. Just keep going out
from that waypoint. I'm going to go back over here
to where the boat made this big loop, and I'm
just going to crisscross through that whole area. I mean,
I had no idea why I was doing it that way,
(13:44):
but anyway, that's what we did.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Jack traveled to the last waypoint for several minutes, he
made concentric circles around it, and then he spotted something
in the water.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, so you started a search, and I guess like
twenty or thirty minutes in, I saw this in the ocean.
But I found a pair of boots like floating the water.
It's regular deck boots he'd be fishing with. I scooped
those up, raided in the coast guard, raided into my dad,
and I thought, I'm like, oh my gosh, I did
his boots slip off from when he like drowned or something.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
While Jack saw the boots as a bad sign, Andrew
had a different thought.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So I was about three quarters of a mile from Jack,
searching through this big loop. I don't know why. It
wasn't based on anything really concrete, but I just thought,
if I had fallen overboard, I would take my boots
off because I could swim easier with my boots off.
And so that said to me he fell off and
he was still alive. And then for some reason, that
(14:43):
said to me between where he had touched the screen
and there was a straight line before it made this
big courage. I don't know why. In my mind I
thought he fell off somewhere in that straight long.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Andrew drove his boat back to the start of the
straight line and let his boat drift rifted south, which
made Andrew think that Sasha may have drifted south as well.
He chriss crossed over the line slightly to the north
and then back towards the south, scanning the horizon for
any signs of life. He took another turn and went
(15:15):
northward over the line and again headed south, and that's
when he saw it.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
I all of a sudden saw this big splash on
the surface, probably like three hundred yards away, and I thought,
that is either a big fish or that is somebody.
And I sped the boat up as fast as it
could go cut the distance, and then I just saw
this hand come out of the water and reach across
in a big arc like that, and I just came
(15:42):
on the radio and I was like, Coast Guard Radio
station Wilmington, I have found him. I have found him.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Earlier that day, Sasha Sheller, an experienced swimmer, surfer, and fishermen,
had been out fishing on what started out to be
a perfect day. Sasha heard over the radio the other
fishermen were catching gaffer mahi mahi, which are very large
mahi mahis, and he saw several boats heading that way.
(16:12):
The waves were unusually calm, so he decided to drive
out further than normal until he reached about forty miles
off shore. Sasha had always been very safety minded, however,
he let his guard down just for a moment, and
a moment was all that it took.
Speaker 6 (16:33):
I was out fishing and I set up on my rigs.
Speaker 7 (16:37):
I was trolling them behind me, and it was calm,
and say beautiful, and I'm gonna take my life jacket
off just a little while and get some sun. And
that was the biggest mistake I ever made. So I'm
just cruising along. You're listening to some music, and this
is a part of a lot of people kind of
make fun of. So standing right here by a steerwheel,
(16:58):
and I had to relieve myself. So I turned to
the side of the boat right next to the steeringwheel,
did what I had to do, and when I was
turning back around to face the steeringwheel, my foot slipped
and I just rolled right over the side of the boat.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
He first tried to grab the side of the boat
without success. He had one last chance to grab the
back platform of the boat, but it was impossible with
the boat moving so quickly.
Speaker 7 (17:27):
That boat was gone in a matter of a minute.
I mean, when your whole body's in the water and
on your head's sticking up and you're watching that boat go,
it's a minute or two and you can't see it anymore.
Speaker 6 (17:41):
It's gone.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Sasha watched in horror as his boat got further and
further away. So much went through Sasha's mind in the
moments that followed. At one point he saw a boat
in the distance. He tried yelling and screaming as loud
as he could, but his hopes were quickly dashed as
the folk captain didn't see him and drove out of sight.
(18:04):
He was left alone with only his thoughts in what
felt like an endless see.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
I was pretty angry, pretty upset with myself. When I
started to talk about the details. Is when it kind
of floods back. You have a bunch of different thoughts
(18:34):
that go through your head. The first one was kids, Yeah,
you got to leave your kids. You thinking about your
children growing up without you.
Speaker 6 (18:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (18:53):
Now that I'm older and mid forties, and I think
you started thinking about man, I don't have enough life insurance,
realizing what all this would do to them, And you
start thinking about long term, what your actions did and
what the consequences are.
Speaker 6 (19:09):
So that's why the anger was there.
Speaker 7 (19:12):
It was really anger at myself for the one simple
decision I made that risked everything.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
After several minutes of treading water, Sasha's fear and anger
gave way to thoughts of survival.
Speaker 7 (19:29):
I think your mind automatically turns itself onto preservation mode
so pretty fast, I would say fifteen to twenty minutes,
I was like, you know what, I know, I'm about
three miles away from where those other five boats were,
and that's where I remembered the swell direction. So I
started swimming in the direction of where those five boats were.
(19:52):
About every ten minutes or so, I ducked my head
underwater and listen. It's found travels much better underwater, so
i'd listened for boats. Yeah, every now and then. I
think two times I heard a boat, but they were
way off in the distance.
Speaker 6 (20:06):
So I just kept swimming, and after about an hour.
Speaker 7 (20:09):
Or so, I started trying to spot some star gas
of seaweed, And if you're not familiar, it's a seaweed
that floats. It has a little airsacks in it. So
I was going to take my shorts off and stuff
them with as much stargas as seaweed as possible, so
I had something to mentally hold on too if it
went into the night.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Agonizing hours pasted before he saw another boat.
Speaker 7 (20:33):
After two hours, I saw a boat coming towards me
at a high rate of speed, and then it started
leaving again, and I thought that was quite strange, But
then about five minutes later it was doing it again.
Speaker 6 (20:46):
It was coming towards me.
Speaker 7 (20:47):
And then when it happened the third time, I just
started kicking my legs as much as I could and
waving my arms and splashing water, just trying to get
anything to get attention. And then next thing you edded
boat speeding straight towards me and not so it was
probably five yards away from me. I realized it was
my boat and it was Andrew driving my boat.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
This is the point where Andrew called into the coastguard.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Coast Guard, does this parker over, I have found him.
Coast Guard, does this Parker? I have found him.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
And then at that point Jack heard all of that
on the radio and he raced to where we were.
I raced up to Sasha in the water, spun the
back of his boat around him, chuck the motor off,
ran to him. He was cramping up pretty badly, pulled
him up onto the swim platform on the back of
the boat. Initially just laid on a swim platform and
(21:40):
recovered for about thirty seconds, and then he was able
to get up and come into the back of the
boat and sit on the back of transom up the boat.
At that point Jack was there. He tied up to
the boat again. I asked Sasha if he had anything
on board, like gatorade, and he was like, yeah, I
had a cooler and he got my gatorade. He just
sat on the back of the boat for like ten
(22:01):
minutes and drank a gayarade and kind of recovered, and
you know, we were just like, I'm so happy to
see you, and he was like, I'm so happy to
see you, and it was Yeah, it was pretty special.
Marker from the coast Guard, Roger, good guy, that you
found one of those persons in the water.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
You have them on board and over you guys guard
rightful beat you guys guard rightful bee. I confirmed this
is Parker, we have him. He has safe on board.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
Roger kap could you say to confirm he was the
only person on board in the boat?
Speaker 5 (22:36):
That's ten for only person on the beat.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
We asked Sasha how he felt when he realized he
was going to be rescued. This was his response.
Speaker 7 (22:55):
So, it's a crazy good feeling. I don't know if
I could put it in the words. I mean, it's
just to be able to relax and not realizing how
tense you actually were until I could grab a hold.
Speaker 6 (23:13):
Of that boat.
Speaker 7 (23:15):
I mean, you know, I'm in good shape, but as
soon as I grabbed that boat, my legs cramped up.
I mean, who knew how long I could have lasted,
could have been in those five minutes in my legs cramped,
who knows.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
But yeah, it's.
Speaker 7 (23:27):
Just such a mixed emotions of relief, ecstasy, and it's
kind of hard to describe. As then as my legs
became uncramped, now, just bear hug Andrew.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
It was truly a miracle that Sasha had been found.
Part of this miracle is that Sasha's boat had driven
directly at two men who were willing to do all
it took to find him. But even more miraculous is
how the boat ended up turning with out a captain
steering it from its original trajectory to drive straight at
Andrew and Jack.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
I think the coolest part of the story for me
is what Sasha got back home. He called us and
he said he just got back to my boat. Like,
I don't care at all, because you guys just saved
my life and everything. But did you guys take one
of the rods off the boat? I was trolling six
rods when I had Followen off and we were like, no,
he didn't pick any rods, So he went back at
his GPS and back to my dad was talking about
(24:28):
the way the boat was moving, initially where it made
big arc and then kind of shot on the straight
line where it had gone straight towards us. The rod
that he was missing was on his left out rigor,
which is where the boat turned towards And the only
possible explanation for why a rod would just raandly followed
an out rigor is if like a huge fish beyond belief,
(24:49):
grabbed the bait that he was trowling, pulled all the
line off the rod, like three four hundred yards, tilted
to the side to the rod. When someone bore his
out of the water, it was it'll pop out of
the outrigger, and the boat straightened out again directly on
a course straight towards us. So I think that is
like the craziest part of the story. I'm a math major,
(25:10):
So like random numbers, on the chances that we would
have seen his boat out there, the chance of his
boat going close enough to ours much less on the
direct trajector where we had to move our boat out
of the way. It's like point zero zeros like nine
or ten zeros like one percent. So it's just like
completely unbelievable that that would have happened.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Sasha agrees that this is the only way his boat
could have turned the way it did.
Speaker 7 (25:37):
So the interesting part is, about three quarters of a
mile or so after I fell out of the boat,
my boat started turning to the left, and then all
of a sudden it may in ninety degree turn. The
interesting part about that is is that I was missing
a fishing rod, one of the ones I was using
control with, and it happened to be on the same
(25:58):
side that that boat turned to on the left side. Yeah,
it's not like a river or lake, and there's not
a whole lot of debris out there, and a little
bit of sea weed's not gonna be able to pull
a boat. So the only real kind of explanation is
that I actually call a fish and they started taking
line out and drag, causing it to drift to the left,
(26:20):
and then when it got to the end of the
line where it's tied off on the reel, it was
enough to pull the boat. That changed the direction of
my boat to make it go towards Andrew and Jack,
which is pretty pretty crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Sasha didn't grow up a religious man. He feels more
connected to nature than anything, and attributes his survival to
both nature and the courageous men who saved his life.
Andrew and Jack see things a little differently.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
It's like, there's no way that would have happened without
America or divine intervention. That's like it just wouldn't have happened,
you know, no way would have happened. It's like, why
do some miracles happened while like other super tragedy horrible
things happen. I think you get to press like that
I believe, but have like blind say, and just know
there's a higher power and a higher plan that you
(27:09):
don't fully understand. You may maybe using a higher power
and higher plan, like we're used and put in the
right place at the right time. I don't think any
like moral mind comprehend why miracle happens.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Andrew, Jack, and Sasha have all shared this experience with
the media and in various settings. Sasha has gone on
to emphasize how important safety gear is. He knows that
even the most experienced sports enthusiast can get into trouble
if they let their guard down. When it comes to safety.
His hope is that this experience may very well save
(27:44):
others' lives. Both Andrew and Jack received commendation medals from
the Coastguard, but these two heroic men are also incredibly humble.
Both men said, far more than any medals, they're grateful
for how this experience has changed the course of history
for not only Sasha, but Sasha's family.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I will tell you the most profound thing that came
out of this entire thing for me was it was
about a week later that we had Sasha and his
family and his parents to our house. And they came
and it was really funny. Sasha brought some gifts with him,
one of which was the castaway volleball, so that sits
(28:26):
in my health now. But his wife, during that visit said,
and I can never get through this easily. She said,
you know that day, you didn't just save Sasha, you
saved our family. I'm just thankful that we were put
(28:47):
in the right place at the right time. You know,
I've had the right skill set that we were able
to do something.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Oh man, can you imagine being out in the ocean
without a life, and you know, when you're almost forty
miles away from shore and no one in sight.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Oh my gosh, I would be so scared, terrifying. I
get scared in a lake thinking the fish is gonna
bite my toes me too, seriously, Like Jaws messed me up.
I still am traumatized.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
By that movie.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
And when you're in a lake there's no shark, thinking
about in the ocean, You're like, what is beneath me?
Speaker 2 (29:26):
It would be so scary.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, at that point you are completely helpless.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Right, And he was in really good physical health, but still,
I mean, you can't just swim forty miles into.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Shore against the current. Yeah, And in those two hours
he only had gone a mile and if he would
have kept swimming, everyone would have been gone for the day.
There was no hope.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Really yeah, he knew that too. He knew that the
boats were probably all going to be heading in soon
and that the chances of getting to them before they
left were pretty slim.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
And if they had left, I mean, yeah, he.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Was really smart. I do have to say, like when
he was talking about getting those seaweeds that he could
use to kind of help him feel like you had
something to hold on too, I thought, what a smart
thing to do. I don't know that my brain would
have ever gone there.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Kind of reminded me of that show Alone. If you've
seen Alone, and it's the survival show, how creative people
get when they're in a survival situation. Yeah, I thought
I would never have thought of that, but who knows
what you would think of when you're actually put out there.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
True. One thing that was really important to him was
to give a message about safety and to make sure
you use your safety equipment.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, and we have a SoundBite that we want to
play to honor his wishes of the message he wanted
to get across.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (30:43):
The reason why I like to talk about it is
to make people aware. I've got every creditation behind me.
I was a surfer of a lifeguard and went coast guard.
You know, I knew all the safety protocols and had
every kind of safety equipment you can imagine.
Speaker 6 (30:58):
It was just one really stupid decision.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
If I would have had that life jacket on that
I took off, there's a whistle.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
That boat would have heard me. With a whistle. I
had a VHF radio.
Speaker 7 (31:09):
All the boats within five miles would have heard me
on the VHF radio. Yeah, I mean, it would have
been a fifteen minute ordeal. So it's the big thing
I really want people to understand when I shared it
is regardless of what you're doing, if.
Speaker 6 (31:22):
It's snowboarding, if it's fishing in the ocean.
Speaker 7 (31:26):
If it's hiking in the mountains, safety equipment is relatively
expensive to the actual toys that you're using out there.
So get it and use it. Don't just have this
so you can say you have it, but actually use it.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
I know he's gone around to several trainings and meetings
and has presented about his experience.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Well, and he very well could be saving lives by
sharing that message, So we definitely want to help him
spread that message.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah. You know, without that life jacket, the only way
he could have survived in the vast ocean is through
a miracle.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Yeah, I agree, And I just want to say, don't
you think it's incredible how this father and son went
so above and beyond?
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Yeah, I think that there are lots of people who
would just call in the coastguard report it and feel like, Okay,
I've done my duty.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Well, and who knows that the coastguard would have found him.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah, in that instance, minutes were so crucial.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
And I thought it was so cool that when the
coastguard said Roger that thank you and just hung up,
that they were like, we're gonna go out and find
this guy.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Yeah, I wasn't so cool to have the coastguard call.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Yeah, I feel like I'm eavesdropping listening.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
To this call. You can hear the elation in Andrew's voice.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
They were really smart too, the way they went about things.
But I'm also sure that they were given divine guidance
to find Sasha as well well.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Whether you attribute it to luck or you attribute it
to divine intervention. I'm grateful Sasha is alive.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
I am too, and I'm sure his family is so grateful.
I'm sure Andrew and Jack, Yeah, they're heroes, they really are.
Thank you for joining us. If you have a miracle
to share, contact us at the miraclefiles dot com or
find us on Facebook.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
We'll post new episodes on the first day of each month,
and if you enjoyed this podcast, please share it and
leave us a review.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Join us next time as we discover more of God's miracles,
and don't forget to look for his light in your
own lives.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
If you'd like to support us on Patreon so we
can produce more episodes like this, go to patreon dot
com forward slash the Miracle Files. You'll get exclusive access
to photos, videos, articles, and other content you won't find
anywhere else. We'll also have live chats, and we'd love
to interact with you there. Thank you so much for
your support.
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