August 22, 2023 • 35 mins
This segment was far too good to not share and we wanted to give everyone a chance to enjoy the conversation ftom 8/19. Sargeant Kevin Pardue joined us to chat for a while about the many things that the wonderful men and women of SCDNR deal with on a daily basis. We have had a very sad summer in terms of accidents that resulted in death here. Please use your best judgement when out on the water and be polite to our officers that are working tirelessly to keep us safe. Our next guest can defintely talk about safety and more importantly miracles and the fact that God had a hand in his and his three diving partners safe recovery. Mr. Ben Wiggins was one of the four divers that were stranded floating in the ocean just two weeks ago and were found in the darkness of the night and safely rescued by our friends in the USCG and the U.S. Navy. This story defintely will open your eyes to all the possibilites that can happen to us when we are on the water and regardless the cause of this........a higher power had a hand in keeping them positve and alert of the surroundings and ended with them making it to safety. We appreciate Mr Wiggins and Sarge for taking the time to join us this week on Gator 107.9. Enjoy
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
All right, fish heads, welcomeback to the Southern English radio show Took
coming to you live via the ToyotaTundra Studio presented by Sparks Toyota where the
dealers always in and by Marshall's MarineKey West Boats in Georgetown and Lake City
where every day is a boat showevery day, and by the Freedom Boat
Club where the boat is waiting.I's try hey, remember y'all. One
(00:20):
thing also, if you don't dothe Freedom Boat Club, the membership,
which is a great option, greatselection. I got to give a shout
out to my partner over here.You can also get in touch with him.
Yeah, if you're looking for aboat, because the man can get
you taken care of, can't you. Oh yeah, I have one of
my hats I wears as a boatbroker. I tried with Berry Boger,
Berry Boger with Berry Boger yachts andthen and you know also you buy boats,
(00:45):
Yeah, I buy boats. Yeah. That's my wife's looking at That
boat is for mama. Don't lie. You said that's her boat. I
mean when she looked at it,she said I liked the color. And
when she said that, I knew, okay, this one's coming home.
Yep, yep, that's right.We were working yesterday on with Steady.
Scott thinks that two thirty Bay wouldbe just perfect for miss Stephanie people supposed
to bring back. He know,he was telling me how much he enjoyed
(01:08):
that boat. Right. Oh well, I saw that sparkle in his eyes
and I was like, uh,Jason needs to be a broker. He
really does. I mean he uhhe knew how to trick that boat out.
And he said, you want togo for a ride? I was
like, no, because if wedo, I know it's getting ready to
happen. And we went for aride, and it happened, hook line
and sink. All right, I'ma mister A minute, heart, I'm
(01:30):
gonna tell you what. There's onethere there. There's a lot of different
factors in how we get to enjoythe water and stay safe on the water.
And our next guest who's gonna joinus for a couple of minutes,
and he didn't really want to joinus, but I'm making him. He
and his team are uh into andand and and the reason that we do
(01:52):
have a lot of safe trips outon the water, and the reason that
we get edge of mckeated on lawswhile we're on the water, and that
is the one and only Sergeant KevinPardieu who has joined us real quick.
And Kevin, how's how's this summerbeen pretty? Let's let's talk about how's
it? Absolutely horrible? And that'swhat I love about the SORG. That's
(02:13):
how you really feel. Come onwell and be honest, because don't be
doing Tommy buckin and blow it.You know how he's gonna do it.
Let's let's hear the sergeants. Well, I love Tommy. He covers us
for me because I'm not the youare naldi his. But no, it's
just been We've got so many boats, so a little water. Everybody wants
(02:36):
to ride, Everybody wants to drink. It's not about fishing anymore. On
the weekends, it's more about theride and the party. Nobody knows anybody.
Nobody has courtesy, nobody has patients. Yep, we've worked. We
hadn't had the number of accents wetraditionally had, but the ones we've had
have been catastrophic. We've had I'veseen too many people lose their lives this
year. I've seen too many peoplehave catastrophic events that if they're going to
(02:57):
change their lives forever, and it'sa lot of it can be avoided.
I was asking another officer a coupleof weeks ago, pretty much every accident
that has happened this year, doyou not agree was one hundred percent human
and induced? And I'm not sayinga different thing, but we were any
(03:20):
of them. There definitely could havebeen some things done differently. I told
some of the representatives that this newboating, the new U voting education,
when just placed to require right anybodyafter two thousand and seven half two thousand
s education is a is a greatfirst step. It's not gonna remedy our
(03:42):
problem, but it's definitely gonna goin the right direction helping where It's gonna
take some years before we actually startseeing it, because when that age group
actually comes in to the boat rentalsor or to where they're operating the boats
on their own, then we'll maybestart seeing that effect. Voting has been
around a lot longer than cars.Yep. The rules on the water were
established and have been there for many, many, many years before there was
(04:05):
ever a car on the highway.Right, you do yourself a favor and
learn them amen, Yes, sir, that's the truth. And and there's
all kinds of different ways to learnthem. I mean, now obviously some
many are going to be forced tolearn them the right way, but there
are many different ways. I mean, you can do it yourself, go
(04:25):
and do the the online class thatwas that was on d and Our's website.
But you're right, and so manypeople I know to pay no attention
to channel markers at all, likethey have no idea, not including and
well everybody here's got a captain's license, yeah, yep. Other than plotting,
what was the hardest thing Rules ofthe Road? Rules of the road.
You know, I went to FlatSI for four weeks and we spent
(04:47):
a solid week on doing nothing butRules of the Road. The hardest test.
It was harder than any legal testI ever took at the academy.
You don't have to have that indepth of knowledge, right, you know.
You don't have to sit down ona simulator and have different colored lights
coming about on a black screen andhave to identify what boats they are by
their lights. Yep, you don'tneed to be in that level. But
you need to know what a redfor, what a green's for, why
(05:08):
you don't run white lights on thefront of your boat and blind everybody.
Yep, you know that the red, the green, the white on the
back. It has a purpose.It's communicating. As we go on the
water, especially at night, there'sa preferred side of the channel. During
the day, there's a preferred courseof action. There's actions that you're supposed
to take. When you see avessel, you're supposed to communicate with them,
either directly or visually. And andyour actions should be very distinct.
(05:31):
They shouldn't be subtle. You shouldbe communicating that with the person. And
me and Jason we're talking earlier andI told him I'm a horrible pastor and
he agrees, and he's the samething I am too. Because there's a
certain way I want to drive aboat because I'm going to be safe.
Yep, yep, you know thesewaterways are probably one of the most dangerous
places you can be on the weekend, no doubt about it, ye,
no doubt about it. You youyou hit that nail on the head man,
(05:55):
It's it's terrible. And I'll tellyou Patrick's Parks. You've seen his
boat out there driving it from LittleRiver back to the Grand dus Marina where
he has it that trip of allthe nowig zones and setting it down and
then trying to get back up onplane. That ten eight to ten seconds
of trying to plane all or themost nerve wracking time because and when I
(06:16):
go to throttle up at that point, I know where the boats are,
but we all know in eight toten seconds where a jet key can get
to. And it's the biggest fearwell in that area up there. The
ICW is is obviously it's a ditch. It was man made, it was
dug right, it was. Itwas made for interstate traffic, for for
commerce during a period of war,so we could move goods without having German
(06:41):
you boats sink our stuff offshore.It wasn't designed for the way that we
use we use it now. Yeah, you know the wag zones. I've
spent ten years of my life inthem that I'll never get back. I'm
really pushing trying to get some bettermarking to It's confusing to people because we
have we've gotten to the point wehave so many up there, and the
(07:03):
biggest complaint I hear from people isthey don't understand because when you put in
under the bridge there at Johnny Causeyor across the waterway. The start of
that WAG zone is on the outsideswing bridge. So when they come into
the WA when the end or there, they're not they don't see the they
don't see the sign, they don'tsee the double gate. They see the
(07:23):
signs on the on the the bridge, but they don't see the double gate,
the two the two floats ye.So when they exit those on the
other side of Silver Crest, theythink or before they even get to that.
A lot of times they'll come upand then when they go through those
they think, oh, well,now I'm in the wazone So they'll come
down when they're out of the wazoneYe. Then they'll get to the next
wing zone and it is forever andthey think, there's no way I'm still
(07:48):
in a WAG zone. Yeah,they're either they're either they're either obeying the
WAG zone when they're out of theWA zone are violating the WA zone when
they're in there when they're zone,and it is a anytime we we implement
a new area like that, wego through an educational period. We don't
come out and just try to,you know, punish people Obviously we don't
want to punish anybody wrong, butwe don't want to because the whole idea
(08:09):
is to jauk change your behavior.It's not necessarily punishment, it's changing behavior.
Dating. We will want to gothrough that educational period and a lot
of people that live up there aremad. You know what, you need
to write all these tickets, Youneed to do this, you need to
do that. Well that's not fairto the public either, yea. So
we're going through that period. Well, we're also working on trying to get
some things clarified. There's both sidesof the argument. They're both going up
(08:31):
People are you know, not happy, people are happy. It's a balance
that we have to fight up thereand they get the people get mad.
We work, you know, wetraditionally work a lot of accents with the
rental jet skicks, rental pontoons.People get mad, or why don't you
write them a bunch of tickets?That person's down here for one time,
they're probably never getting back on aboat. They just had a bad experience.
(08:52):
It's already costing them way more moneybecause they're paying for damages. A
lot of times. That's right,is does me writing them a ticket have
any influence on the future of safeboating. Nope, not at all,
you know, And that's an argumentthat we have a lot of times with
these operators because they want that ticketto stand because it helps them out with
(09:13):
insurance companies. Yep. Well,I'll tell you, you guys do it
an incredible job. I don't envyyou one bit at all with all that
y'all have to deal with and thefact that I mean, now you're in
dear. I mean, this iswhat people don't realize and don't understand,
with the amount of work that is, workload that is put on y'all,
(09:33):
and we're talking we're in the middleof deer season, right in the middle
of deer season started. Yep.I mean you're showing that, you know,
you've got some already good cases.I mean, it's just crazy what
you deal with here. And nowy'all going to go straight from that,
and then of course you don't haveto deal much with the early till season,
but till season and shrimp season andall that's coming right up. People.
Please, if you're out on thewater, you see r D and
(09:54):
our officers they come over to checkyou. Be kind, be nice,
listen. I know you may behaving bad day, you may think they're
targeting you. Just do your showthem your stuff and get on out the
way. Let them go do theirthing. They're out there to protect us,
keep us safe, keep the resourcesthat saved. They're not out there
just to pick on people, pickon us. And you know, the
(10:16):
best thing we can do is cooperateand let's get it done. I mean,
well, what people don't understand thisone weather of course, is going
to extend our boat and season,just like I try. And boating has
changed since COVID. Oh oh boy, a lot, especially in the boat
sales business. I think, yes, Mercy, you can testify it that.
But we just had their seas alot in for ar tree yep,
(10:37):
down in the lower part of state. It's already in. For guns.
It's it's bucks only right now,not crazy, but that came in.
Well. Then on the first ofSeptember, guns come in. Also on
the first of September, we havegoose coming in. We have marsh Hen's
rails and all those coming in onthe second. Dove season comes in on
the fifteenth, Raccoon and possum comesin on the fifteenth. Early teal comes
(11:00):
in, shrimp bait comes in justbefore that. Oh gosh, alligator comes
in sometime around that. So man, oh, and then you're gonna have
there'll be something else open and shrimptrial, they'll do something, something else
will come in that in that sametime period. Well, it's it's so
much going on, and you know, it's we're stretched fifty different directions,
(11:22):
and a lot of times we getto complaints. And it's funny because I
have people complain in there, Well, I've never seen anybody else, never
seen anybody in this area, andit's an area that I've always worked.
And my guy's a laugh because I'llgo check forty boats and thirty of them
know me by my first name andthey're like, wow, somebody I've ever
seen you up here. Well Iguess he was just that lucky guy.
(11:43):
Yeah, yep, no doubt aboutit. Hey, so I got Ben,
will you stay with us? Andthat you might have a question for
Ben. I mean, you're familiarwith what happened with these guys the whole
gen. We're gonna do this.We're gonna do this real quick. We're
gonna try it. Okay, I'llsee if I can get this thing.
If we get hung up, getready to play us all. Just hold
(12:05):
on one second, mister Wiggins.Hey, this is hey buddy. Height
one second. All right, herewe go. All right? Do we
have? Do we have? Ben? Merged in? Miss Jenna? You
(12:26):
can you hear us? I canhear you? All right, Jenna?
There we go nice? All right, Hey, ladies and gentlemen and all
you fish heads out there. Iwant to introduce you to my soon to
be good friend because I love talkingto this guy already, and that is
mister Ben Wiggins. And Ben realquick tell us you tell us where you're
from, and let's hear a littlebit about you and then before we talk
(12:48):
about the other topic. Okay,Well, first of all, thank you
so much for having me on today, because you know, I really should
be dead right now. I'm I'mactually originally from Raleigh, and uh,
you know, went into the Navyin eighty two, traveled the world and
(13:09):
settled down here in Hampstead in theWimwantine area where my father's family was from.
So a lot of my family isin this area. Wow, I
did not know you were right upthere. I thought you were Inland A
little bit. I did not knowyou were right there. Yeah, they
had me is from Raleigh and Ioriginally was from Raleigh, but both my
wife and I are from Raleigh.But we've we've settled here in the Hampstead
(13:31):
area. Now, how long haveyou been into scuba diving? I got
certified as a scuba scuber scuba diverthrough the Navy in nineteen eighty seven.
Oh wow, wow, And uhand I'm gonna guess you you you have
dove in a lot of other placesother than right here off our coast.
(13:56):
Yes, sir, I have beenabsolutely blessed beyond measure. I had dove
the world. I have been tothe Great Barrier reefs, Oh wow,
wow, the Caribbean Dove, theRed Sea, Far Pacific Ocean, lakes
and rivers. It's just it's anincredible story. That is great. Now,
(14:18):
I mean, are you Are youa big fisherman? I am.
A matter of fact, I loadedup while I was waiting to go on
with you, fellas. I loadedup the truck. We're gonna drive ever
to uh Sloop Point where we keepour boat. I got a twenty five
foot scout and my wife and Iare going to go out and just use
some inland fish and we're not goingto go offshore. I promise, Oh
(14:39):
man, I tell you you know. And that was one of the questions
I wanted I was gonna have foryou too, is you know, had
you been back on the ocean.I know this, we're you know,
we're really close to UH when theexperience happened. But I didn't know if
you had been back in the oceanand if you had any reservations just yet
about going back out there. Well, I gotta be honest with you.
(15:01):
I thank you for that question.You know, what kept us alive is
not being controlled by fear, andI have a deep, deep respect for
the ocean before even this happened onSunday night, Sunday afternoon. But I'll
go back out and I'll probably godiving again, but I can tell you
(15:22):
this, I'm going to make somecourse corrections. My Navy's career kicked in
and helped us go through some proceduralsteps. I really didn't leave kept us
alive, But I gotta give ahuge shout out to the Navy and the
Coastguard because they had they had theC one thirty in the air looking for
us, and they came over usabout just before one am Monday morning,
(15:48):
and it was on their last pastthat they saw our strode. But my
son, Brandon is a rescue swimmercoastguard. He's retired medically. He had
he had a severe injury back inabout five six years ago, so they
medically retire him. But he said, Dad, I made calls all up
and down the sectors to find outwhat was going on. He goes and
(16:08):
there was another C one thirty enroute from Clearwater, Florida to take over
the search after the Elizabeth Citty.C one thirty was gonna feel off.
Well wow, oh man, let'sreal quick. Let's talk about it.
What you know? I know theone question everybody has, what happened?
(16:29):
You know? Can can you talkabout that? I mean, do you
do you? I mean, obviouslyy'all know what happened. I mean,
where was the confusion or anything ofthat nature, But you know, maybe
describe. We've got time for youto describe to dive you wrong, what
got and what the plan was andthen how things turned out. I think,
you know, I'd love to haveyou for an hour or more because
I know you and I are gonnahave plenty to talk about it, and
(16:51):
we might do that this week,and I'm gonna come visit you somewhere and
we'll get that done. But fortoday's purposes, let's talk about what happened.
Exactly what happened. Okay, Well, I'll try to stick to us
near my memory can serve me.So here's what happened. I got my
friend who earns the boat Big Billsis in Holden Beach, North Carolina,
(17:15):
and he has been, you know, a friend since seventh grade up in
Raleigh, going through junior high inhigh school. And his name is Willie
Carter. He and Willie said,hey, Ben, we love you to
go dive. And Luke, youknow, his son is a great,
great kid. So I'm so impressedwith that young man. He's actually a
Patty Master diver, so he instructspeople in open water dive and in certified
(17:38):
with them. So I felt confidentin his ability. We headed out of
myrtle, I'm sorry, headed outof Holden Beach in his boat, which
is a little over thirty something feetlong, about seven thirty Sunday morning.
And it was a doctor Dan Williamson board with his son Evan and two
(18:00):
other sons that were younger, butEvan is sixteen and I had just met
him for the first time when Iboarded his boat. UH let me fast
forward. We headed out through theindlet out a Holden Beach and headed to
the Dife site that they had dovemany times and uh was known for,
(18:22):
you know, great spear fishing.So it was about just about a two
hour transit. And I might bewrong on the time we departed. I
didn't really look at my watch,but I remember we we got there and
uh Luke threw a buoy in thewater and I didn't see the weight on
the bottom of the buoy, butI was told it was ten pounds.
(18:45):
So you know when we arrived onDife site and about and our dive was
going to be about a forty twominute dive at about eighty feet. The
deepest Jeff, we were going toincur was about ninety and uh a console
on the regulator at the first stageyou would, you know, compute your
bottom time. But I know frommemory what the depth times, depth and
(19:07):
times are, so I was goingto stick to that. Dan doctor Dan
and his son got in the waterfirst and went ahead and you know,
went down to go fish or spearfishthis ledge that there, so you know
popular and I just I'm just likenot in a hurry. So I said,
(19:33):
Luke, when you're ready, youknow, we'll splash. So I
got dressed out. I was wearinga shorty. Everyone else was wearing a
long sleeve and a long leg wetsuit. So you know, we the water
was really calm. I mean it'svery calm. So we uh got ready,
got our stuff on. I said, okay. I rolled off the
port side aft. He rolled offthe starboard side. After we met off
(19:56):
the stern and we had the boathad drifted a little off the story.
So we came around and got togetherand I said, let's swim towards the
book. We started swimming towards Ithink we made the decision just go ahead
and drop there and then we'd beon the ledge. Well, we got
down to about eighty five feet andthere was no ledge, and it was
(20:17):
just flat bottom of the you know, little rocky structure. But the rock
structure didn't jet up more than abouta foot. He looks around, We
get a three sixty. He gaveme the hand signal for surfacing. So
we started surfacing and you know,you got us as a diver's out there
listening. You know, you don'twant to exceed your bubble ascent rate,
(20:37):
no matter how long you've been down. So we started heading to the surface.
But we pop up on the surfaceand we're one hundred and fifty yards
from the boat. The current hadalready pulled us that far. I said,
oh, man, so we weretrying to swim to it. And
some time after that, and Idon't know the number of minutes because I
wasn't glancing at my watch. Iwas more concerned with, you know,
(20:57):
keeping the boat at a close distance. Sometime after we surfaced, you know,
within ten or fifteen minutes, doctorDan Williams and his son's surface.
Well by this time, we're threehundred yards from the boat, and so
we started, you know, goingthrough a bunch of you know, I
said, guys, get over here, this all stay together, and they
(21:18):
were saying the same thing. Imean, we used to say this.
This isn't This story is not aboutBen Wiggins and his miraculous Darien dude.
This story is about how God steppedin at the right time and saved all
four of us. That I needto say that first and foremost because without
God being involved in this, Iwouldn't be talking to you right now.
Yeah, my faith is strong andit's even stronger now, and I believe
(21:41):
there's this too. But we we'veSoon after we realized we weren't making any
headway on the surface because of thesurface current, we we quickly went into
the We have these divered noodles andmost people who dive no there. They're
inflatable about six foot long, neoncolored, long elongated balloon looking things that
(22:04):
made a nylon that you can waveand get people's attention because they have a
contrast against the water. Unfortunately,what we found out and wasn't until we
were rescued much later. H Williewas focused on the bully and thinking we
were going to come up on that, and when he didn't see us come
up on that at the prescribe timeand to die if he started getting really
(22:25):
panicky, which you can imagine,I can imagine. Yeah, I'll pause
there. If you have any questions. I don't want to just no,
I think, I think, Ithink you keep on going. You're going
right where we wanted to go.Okay, okay, so anyway, we
uh, we quickly realized that,you know, we weren't going to be
(22:47):
able to make any headway. AndI said, okay, guys, we
need to go into survival modes.So we need to drop our weight belts
and if you have any fish.They had the Williams team had a hog
nosed snapper and a good sized lopperin a catch back. I should drop
the whole back. We don't wantany blood in the water. Get rid
of it. We dropped that.We dropped our weight belts. We had
four spear guns. I said,we can hang on to these for now,
(23:07):
but be very careful which way youpoint those spears. And they,
you know, if anybody knows spearguns, the tips unscrewed from the end
of the spear and they just kindof dangle on a little short stead cable,
which doesn't make it, you know, more of a threat. And
I said, we cannot afford tohave a drop of blood going the water,
guys, or we'll be done.So they said absolutely, and we
all had a you know, theoverall attitude was good. It was there
(23:30):
was good, uh, you know, positive attitude, you know, but
you go, I'm gonna fast forwardhere, guys, because we're drifting now
they both getting further further away,and I said, okay, guys,
and we kept swimming. I meanwe swam e We swam probably at least
trying to keep the distance from youknow, gaining on us, probably until
(23:56):
early afternoon. I mean we're swimmingthat long, I mean, kicking towards
the boat. And then it justgot hopeless and more hopeless as we looked
in. The boat just got furtherand further way. The wave action picked
up a little bit. The windand the current. If you got all
you fishermen out there, no,if the wind and the current is both
coming from the same direction, you'remaking a huge amount of time on the
(24:17):
surface in terms of blowing. Wedisched our weight belts and as much way
as we could then because we wantedto present a higher profile in the water
by being less weighted down. That'swhat I learned in the navy. But
at some point I said, okay, we got to start losing some tanks
too, because they're heavy. Minewas still had sixteen hundred and fifty pounds
of air in my tank, soI mean, if I'd have pulled it
(24:41):
out and dropped it, it wouldhave sunk like a rock. Doctor Williams
lost his tank and he went andditched his I think the only other person
that kept the tank was was Glukebecause he's a very experienced, you know,
diver. He said he wanted tohang onto it to keep his BC
inflated. And I said, well, I can use mind to and fleet
in lay our BC's with a powerinflator, so you don't have to use
(25:03):
your breath because the more you blowout, the more you're gonna dehydrate.
Anyway, we just kept drifting anddrifting and drifting. We saw frying pan
tower off to our Wow, youcould see it, yes, we could,
but it was a good six milesaway, six to eight miles.
We saw a helo. Well,when we back up, we saw a
shark. Right around three pm.Luke was right by me, Doctor Williams
(25:26):
was right by him, and Evanhad broken from our group about eight feet
away, and he goes Dad,a shark. He just screams it out.
I said, his dad goes getout of here now. So his
dad called him in. I said, guys, we gotta stay tied together
because if we present a scattered arrayon the water, we're more vulnerable.
So we gotta stay together. Sowe stayed together and just kept drifting and
(25:48):
drifting and drifting, and we sawa helo about eight miles from us doing
two miles sweeps, but every timethey turned, they turned inland and not
outward towards US. Coast guards cognizinto that and they're adjusting their fire because
of that. Luke also had aGPS Garman watch on, one of the
most most loaded with features you canget, and he was dropping breadcrumbs because
(26:14):
I'm gonna drop breadcrumbs in case theycan pick this up at some point and
they'll see our drift, our setand drift. I'm gonna tell you the
kid is he's one of the brightestkids I've ever met. He did that
every fifteen minutes. He dropped thebread crumb to establish our drifts. And
a matter of fact, the coastguard reached out to him and they've got
that now and they're using that toadjust future search patterns if they ever have
(26:38):
to, because they were not tracking. We were drifting that fast. We
drifted twenty eight miles before they pickedus up. Good God, twenty eight
miles. Yep I said to Luke, I said, are you sure,
because mister bean. We drifted twentyeight miles by the time we got in
this in this life rash, mostsixteen and a half hours in the water.
(27:03):
But I'll tell you this, guys, I gotta tell you this because
yeah, you got to speak tomorrowmy church. I got a little bit
of time. I know, whenthe sunset and the darkness really really set
in. I've never seen a moredark sky because I've been on navy vessels,
you know, with my team EODT. I was a Navy eod diver
for for twenty four years, andI've seen the ocean at night, But
I've never seen the ocean in thisblack because it was no moon, which
(27:26):
actually I think was a good thing. I don't know. You fisherman out
there could tell me if I'm wrong, But we were not highlighted on the
surface by a full or a quartermoon, which didn't put a silhouette of
something floating on the surface, whichI hope was in our favor. I
think Bat and God and everything elsecertainly was. But when everything became evident
that we were not going to befound before sunset, at some point my
(27:52):
church all banded together and went infor a prayer vigil. Around nine o'clock,
my wife came upstairs and gotten herprayer clause after she did communion,
and she told me why, Andyou know, those of you who are
believers out there know what communion isfor. She wanted to be right before
she offered up prayers, and Ibelieve she loosed angels all across the heavens
(28:15):
and they circled around us and protectedus. Because listen, did you guys
know if you fish off shore,there's sharks all over the coast of North
Carolinas, and and we'd already seenone, so you know, it was
just a miracle that we had noencounters. We had none. I mean,
after after it got dark, allI did was just keep looking up.
(28:37):
And you don't know if you guysknow about that bid August meteor shower,
but it was on full display aboutI think I missed the first one
around nine thirty ten o'clock, andthen it got so black you really couldn't
see your hand from your face,and they were streaking across the sky in
every direction. I said, youknow what, those are the angels coming
in to protect us on chariot.That's what I stuck with. I just
(29:00):
kept saying, God, I knowyou got this, and I know you're
going to rescue us. I toldthose guys, I said, keep saying
we're going to be rescued, andkeep praying without ceasing, no negative comments.
Just keep keep focused on our positivemindset. And that's what did it.
I mean, we got picked.We saw you know, lights all
over the top of the sky,but we weren't sure if they were drums
(29:22):
or what looking for us. Butwhen we saw the great green and red
wing tip lights so that one thirtywe heard it. Luke says to me,
I hear a plane and I said, oh my gosh. I started
looking and we all about saw itat the same time. I said,
there it is. I should getthe lights on. So we started turning
the lights on. Luke had,thank god, that board brought that Strode
(29:44):
bike and he turned it on andit just it flashes so os and it
was you know, that's what thepilot saw. If you saw the interview,
he goes, I looked down andsaw that coming down the left side
of the aircraft. I turned towardshim and then we found them. And
that was about forty five am andthey went by, they dropped mark fifty
eighth flare in the water, whichI said, thank you God. I
(30:06):
said, guys, we're going home. They know we're here, and uh,
they came by again. They droppeda medkid I think. And then
the third pass they dropped a raftand I'm not kidding you, they drop
that raft less than fifty meters fromus. I heard it smack the water
so loud. I thought I wasgonna get sashed to day. Hey,
I think, hey, you youwouldn't mind it. It didn't matter where
that thing land did, right.Yeah, we were going towards it and
(30:30):
I said, come boys, let'sgo. And you could hear it inflating
the air My son told me,he goes Dad. When they released it
out in the back of the aircraft, it starts inflating, so it it
hits the water, you know,partially inflated, and it was fully inflated
by the time we swammed to it, which took probably less than a minute
to swim to it. I mean, God bless the coast guard, whoever,
whoever the spotter was that dropped that. I'm gonna go find him.
(30:52):
I think they're up in Elizabeth City. I'm gonna go find him. And
I'm gonna go give him a bighug because they dropped that thing. It
was no effort to get to it. So uh. Right about the same
time that happened, and we gotall climbed in the boat, the life
raft, the USS porter comes outof the dark and it's standing off about
three hundred and fifty yards or so, and they launched their small boat to
(31:14):
come over to us, and thenthey got us, retrieved us. They
stabbed holes in the the inflated raftraft because they didn't want someone to see
the next day, I think therewas another rescue to see and just you
know, divert the coast Guard rightsto a you know, a false call.
So we headed back to the porterand they took us on board and
it was man, I'll tell youwhat, guys, they treated us like
(31:36):
royalty espess they get as dry closed. They took us to medical and checked
us out and make sure everyone wasokay, you know, other than dehyt
gration and uh in severe sunburn.We all came through this with a testimating
Wow, huge testimating that is thatis great you do and I'll tell you
what you know. Unfortunately, wedo have to go and get out of
here, but being I want youand I were going to get together first
(32:00):
to the week and figure something out, because I do want to sit down,
sit down, face to face,and I want to there's a lot
more to be shared in this storyand I want, I want to come
sit down with you and do that, so you and I will get to
work on that. But we can'tthank you enough. You've got We've got
everything from high school kids over here, we've got women, we got D
and R. Everybody's sitting here andif you could see their faces while you're
(32:22):
telling that story, I'm hoping everybodywas listening out there and in Fishhead Nation,
in the Gator Nation. But wecan't thank you enough for taking the
time and talking with us this morning, and again, this story deserves a
lot more time. There's a greatarticle, great story and posting career that
was done this week, and ifyou can go find that, I'll share
(32:43):
it. I'll get it up there. But you and I'll get together,
Ben, and thank you once againso much. And I hope you and
your wife go have an incredibly enjoyableday on the water today and just get
to ay you get to relax andlove on each other. Absolutely, and
thank you too, guy for everyonewho had anything to do with me being
on here. I appreciate it andi'd be I look so forward to seeing
(33:05):
you, man, I think we'vegot to I love how the new friendships
have been born out of this,and I feel like I've got a lifelong
friend on the other end of thisline. And I can't wait to meet
some of your partners too. Youguys do an awesome job. And the
information you put out earlier about thewater, the D and R guy you
had on I was sitting there inthe bathroom next to my wife Laura,
and we were both just sticking ourheads, and yet he is so spot
(33:30):
on with what he's saying. Thankyou so much, and I look forward
to got a number. Just callme whenever and we'll get together. Okay,
brother, we will be in Thankyou so much, my friend.
Y'all take care, all right,all right, all right, hey,
Jenna, I think it's time toI think it's time to get on out
of here. And I apologize towhoever's coming on behind us for still in
three minutes. But I'll take care. I'll take care of that with mister
(33:52):
Jimmy. But I don't think thatstory right there could have been cut off
short. No way, listen.We want to thank Matt here in the
family, come all outfitters for havingus over here and welcome Matt to the
team. Sir, welcome Jason Burton, the flounder Pounder to the team.
I feel like he's already been apart of the bovav I'm already were part
of the team, but now we'remaking an official so and listen. Thanks
(34:14):
to Tony the bassmaster for entertaining RussRush so I can do some radio show
today. And I've not heard anybody'sscream, so they have not caught any
fish. But y'all listen. TheSpanish microL World Championships this weekend Thursday night.
The rapple ticket at a raffle atUncle Tito's at Thursday night at six
thirty. Friday night, Captain's beatingRegistration at Uncle Tito's five o'clock at starts.
You can come get registered and thenSaturday, of course we'll be chasing
(34:37):
Spanish Michel and we're gonna be givenaway that beautiful father, Father and sons
services trophies along with five thousand plusand cash. So make sure you get
signed up and we'll be back nextweek. We're gonna be recorded. We're
gonna have a good time this week. Wherever we record it. I might
we may have just figured out wherewe're gonna record it and how we're gonna
(34:59):
record it. But thank you guysso much, and so on. Behalf
of Captain Matt, Welcome all outfitters, Captain Flounder Pounder, the Jason Burton
of myrls and the Fishing Charters,the one and only Bassmaster Tony Carter and
Russ Russ, and of course SuperJenna back in the studio keeping us straight.
I am Captain E and this hasbeen the Southern English radio show on
(35:19):
the Gator one oh seven point nine
All right, fish heads, welcomeback to the Southern English radio show Took
coming to you live via the ToyotaTundra Studio presented by Sparks Toyota where the
dealers always in and by Marshall's MarineKey West Boats in Georgetown and Lake City
where every day is a boat showevery day, and by the Freedom Boat
Club where the boat is waiting.I's try hey, remember y'all. One
(00:20):
thing also, if you don't dothe Freedom Boat Club, the membership,
which is a great option, greatselection. I got to give a shout
out to my partner over here.You can also get in touch with him.
Yeah, if you're looking for aboat, because the man can get
you taken care of, can't you. Oh yeah, I have one of
my hats I wears as a boatbroker. I tried with Berry Boger,
Berry Boger with Berry Boger yachts andthen and you know also you buy boats,
(00:45):
Yeah, I buy boats. Yeah. That's my wife's looking at That
boat is for mama. Don't lie. You said that's her boat. I
mean when she looked at it,she said I liked the color. And
when she said that, I knew, okay, this one's coming home.
Yep, yep, that's right.We were working yesterday on with Steady.
Scott thinks that two thirty Bay wouldbe just perfect for miss Stephanie people supposed
to bring back. He know,he was telling me how much he enjoyed
(01:08):
that boat. Right. Oh well, I saw that sparkle in his eyes
and I was like, uh,Jason needs to be a broker. He
really does. I mean he uhhe knew how to trick that boat out.
And he said, you want togo for a ride? I was
like, no, because if wedo, I know it's getting ready to
happen. And we went for aride, and it happened, hook line
and sink. All right, I'ma mister A minute, heart, I'm
(01:30):
gonna tell you what. There's onethere there. There's a lot of different
factors in how we get to enjoythe water and stay safe on the water.
And our next guest who's gonna joinus for a couple of minutes,
and he didn't really want to joinus, but I'm making him. He
and his team are uh into andand and and the reason that we do
(01:52):
have a lot of safe trips outon the water, and the reason that
we get edge of mckeated on lawswhile we're on the water, and that
is the one and only Sergeant KevinPardieu who has joined us real quick.
And Kevin, how's how's this summerbeen pretty? Let's let's talk about how's
it? Absolutely horrible? And that'swhat I love about the SORG. That's
(02:13):
how you really feel. Come onwell and be honest, because don't be
doing Tommy buckin and blow it.You know how he's gonna do it.
Let's let's hear the sergeants. Well, I love Tommy. He covers us
for me because I'm not the youare naldi his. But no, it's
just been We've got so many boats, so a little water. Everybody wants
(02:36):
to ride, Everybody wants to drink. It's not about fishing anymore. On
the weekends, it's more about theride and the party. Nobody knows anybody.
Nobody has courtesy, nobody has patients. Yep, we've worked. We
hadn't had the number of accents wetraditionally had, but the ones we've had
have been catastrophic. We've had I'veseen too many people lose their lives this
year. I've seen too many peoplehave catastrophic events that if they're going to
(02:57):
change their lives forever, and it'sa lot of it can be avoided.
I was asking another officer a coupleof weeks ago, pretty much every accident
that has happened this year, doyou not agree was one hundred percent human
and induced? And I'm not sayinga different thing, but we were any
(03:20):
of them. There definitely could havebeen some things done differently. I told
some of the representatives that this newboating, the new U voting education,
when just placed to require right anybodyafter two thousand and seven half two thousand
s education is a is a greatfirst step. It's not gonna remedy our
(03:42):
problem, but it's definitely gonna goin the right direction helping where It's gonna
take some years before we actually startseeing it, because when that age group
actually comes in to the boat rentalsor or to where they're operating the boats
on their own, then we'll maybestart seeing that effect. Voting has been
around a lot longer than cars.Yep. The rules on the water were
established and have been there for many, many, many years before there was
(04:05):
ever a car on the highway.Right, you do yourself a favor and
learn them amen, Yes, sir, that's the truth. And and there's
all kinds of different ways to learnthem. I mean, now obviously some
many are going to be forced tolearn them the right way, but there
are many different ways. I mean, you can do it yourself, go
(04:25):
and do the the online class thatwas that was on d and Our's website.
But you're right, and so manypeople I know to pay no attention
to channel markers at all, likethey have no idea, not including and
well everybody here's got a captain's license, yeah, yep. Other than plotting,
what was the hardest thing Rules ofthe Road? Rules of the road.
You know, I went to FlatSI for four weeks and we spent
(04:47):
a solid week on doing nothing butRules of the Road. The hardest test.
It was harder than any legal testI ever took at the academy.
You don't have to have that indepth of knowledge, right, you know.
You don't have to sit down ona simulator and have different colored lights
coming about on a black screen andhave to identify what boats they are by
their lights. Yep, you don'tneed to be in that level. But
you need to know what a redfor, what a green's for, why
(05:08):
you don't run white lights on thefront of your boat and blind everybody.
Yep, you know that the red, the green, the white on the
back. It has a purpose.It's communicating. As we go on the
water, especially at night, there'sa preferred side of the channel. During
the day, there's a preferred courseof action. There's actions that you're supposed
to take. When you see avessel, you're supposed to communicate with them,
either directly or visually. And andyour actions should be very distinct.
(05:31):
They shouldn't be subtle. You shouldbe communicating that with the person. And
me and Jason we're talking earlier andI told him I'm a horrible pastor and
he agrees, and he's the samething I am too. Because there's a
certain way I want to drive aboat because I'm going to be safe.
Yep, yep, you know thesewaterways are probably one of the most dangerous
places you can be on the weekend, no doubt about it, ye,
no doubt about it. You youyou hit that nail on the head man,
(05:55):
It's it's terrible. And I'll tellyou Patrick's Parks. You've seen his
boat out there driving it from LittleRiver back to the Grand dus Marina where
he has it that trip of allthe nowig zones and setting it down and
then trying to get back up onplane. That ten eight to ten seconds
of trying to plane all or themost nerve wracking time because and when I
(06:16):
go to throttle up at that point, I know where the boats are,
but we all know in eight toten seconds where a jet key can get
to. And it's the biggest fearwell in that area up there. The
ICW is is obviously it's a ditch. It was man made, it was
dug right, it was. Itwas made for interstate traffic, for for
commerce during a period of war,so we could move goods without having German
(06:41):
you boats sink our stuff offshore.It wasn't designed for the way that we
use we use it now. Yeah, you know the wag zones. I've
spent ten years of my life inthem that I'll never get back. I'm
really pushing trying to get some bettermarking to It's confusing to people because we
have we've gotten to the point wehave so many up there, and the
(07:03):
biggest complaint I hear from people isthey don't understand because when you put in
under the bridge there at Johnny Causeyor across the waterway. The start of
that WAG zone is on the outsideswing bridge. So when they come into
the WA when the end or there, they're not they don't see the they
don't see the sign, they don'tsee the double gate. They see the
(07:23):
signs on the on the the bridge, but they don't see the double gate,
the two the two floats ye.So when they exit those on the
other side of Silver Crest, theythink or before they even get to that.
A lot of times they'll come upand then when they go through those
they think, oh, well,now I'm in the wazone So they'll come
down when they're out of the wazoneYe. Then they'll get to the next
wing zone and it is forever andthey think, there's no way I'm still
(07:48):
in a WAG zone. Yeah,they're either they're either they're either obeying the
WAG zone when they're out of theWA zone are violating the WA zone when
they're in there when they're zone,and it is a anytime we we implement
a new area like that, wego through an educational period. We don't
come out and just try to,you know, punish people Obviously we don't
want to punish anybody wrong, butwe don't want to because the whole idea
(08:09):
is to jauk change your behavior.It's not necessarily punishment, it's changing behavior.
Dating. We will want to gothrough that educational period and a lot
of people that live up there aremad. You know what, you need
to write all these tickets, Youneed to do this, you need to
do that. Well that's not fairto the public either, yea. So
we're going through that period. Well, we're also working on trying to get
some things clarified. There's both sidesof the argument. They're both going up
(08:31):
People are you know, not happy, people are happy. It's a balance
that we have to fight up thereand they get the people get mad.
We work, you know, wetraditionally work a lot of accents with the
rental jet skicks, rental pontoons.People get mad, or why don't you
write them a bunch of tickets?That person's down here for one time,
they're probably never getting back on aboat. They just had a bad experience.
(08:52):
It's already costing them way more moneybecause they're paying for damages. A
lot of times. That's right,is does me writing them a ticket have
any influence on the future of safeboating. Nope, not at all,
you know, And that's an argumentthat we have a lot of times with
these operators because they want that ticketto stand because it helps them out with
(09:13):
insurance companies. Yep. Well,I'll tell you, you guys do it
an incredible job. I don't envyyou one bit at all with all that
y'all have to deal with and thefact that I mean, now you're in
dear. I mean, this iswhat people don't realize and don't understand,
with the amount of work that is, workload that is put on y'all,
(09:33):
and we're talking we're in the middleof deer season, right in the middle
of deer season started. Yep.I mean you're showing that, you know,
you've got some already good cases.I mean, it's just crazy what
you deal with here. And nowy'all going to go straight from that,
and then of course you don't haveto deal much with the early till season,
but till season and shrimp season andall that's coming right up. People.
Please, if you're out on thewater, you see r D and
(09:54):
our officers they come over to checkyou. Be kind, be nice,
listen. I know you may behaving bad day, you may think they're
targeting you. Just do your showthem your stuff and get on out the
way. Let them go do theirthing. They're out there to protect us,
keep us safe, keep the resourcesthat saved. They're not out there
just to pick on people, pickon us. And you know, the
(10:16):
best thing we can do is cooperateand let's get it done. I mean,
well, what people don't understand thisone weather of course, is going
to extend our boat and season,just like I try. And boating has
changed since COVID. Oh oh boy, a lot, especially in the boat
sales business. I think, yes, Mercy, you can testify it that.
But we just had their seas alot in for ar tree yep,
(10:37):
down in the lower part of state. It's already in. For guns.
It's it's bucks only right now,not crazy, but that came in.
Well. Then on the first ofSeptember, guns come in. Also on
the first of September, we havegoose coming in. We have marsh Hen's
rails and all those coming in onthe second. Dove season comes in on
the fifteenth, Raccoon and possum comesin on the fifteenth. Early teal comes
(11:00):
in, shrimp bait comes in justbefore that. Oh gosh, alligator comes
in sometime around that. So man, oh, and then you're gonna have
there'll be something else open and shrimptrial, they'll do something, something else
will come in that in that sametime period. Well, it's it's so
much going on, and you know, it's we're stretched fifty different directions,
(11:22):
and a lot of times we getto complaints. And it's funny because I
have people complain in there, Well, I've never seen anybody else, never
seen anybody in this area, andit's an area that I've always worked.
And my guy's a laugh because I'llgo check forty boats and thirty of them
know me by my first name andthey're like, wow, somebody I've ever
seen you up here. Well Iguess he was just that lucky guy.
(11:43):
Yeah, yep, no doubt aboutit. Hey, so I got Ben,
will you stay with us? Andthat you might have a question for
Ben. I mean, you're familiarwith what happened with these guys the whole
gen. We're gonna do this.We're gonna do this real quick. We're
gonna try it. Okay, I'llsee if I can get this thing.
If we get hung up, getready to play us all. Just hold
(12:05):
on one second, mister Wiggins.Hey, this is hey buddy. Height
one second. All right, herewe go. All right? Do we
have? Do we have? Ben? Merged in? Miss Jenna? You
(12:26):
can you hear us? I canhear you? All right, Jenna?
There we go nice? All right, Hey, ladies and gentlemen and all
you fish heads out there. Iwant to introduce you to my soon to
be good friend because I love talkingto this guy already, and that is
mister Ben Wiggins. And Ben realquick tell us you tell us where you're
from, and let's hear a littlebit about you and then before we talk
(12:48):
about the other topic. Okay,Well, first of all, thank you
so much for having me on today, because you know, I really should
be dead right now. I'm I'mactually originally from Raleigh, and uh,
you know, went into the Navyin eighty two, traveled the world and
(13:09):
settled down here in Hampstead in theWimwantine area where my father's family was from.
So a lot of my family isin this area. Wow, I
did not know you were right upthere. I thought you were Inland A
little bit. I did not knowyou were right there. Yeah, they
had me is from Raleigh and Ioriginally was from Raleigh, but both my
wife and I are from Raleigh.But we've we've settled here in the Hampstead
(13:31):
area. Now, how long haveyou been into scuba diving? I got
certified as a scuba scuber scuba diverthrough the Navy in nineteen eighty seven.
Oh wow, wow, And uhand I'm gonna guess you you you have
dove in a lot of other placesother than right here off our coast.
(13:56):
Yes, sir, I have beenabsolutely blessed beyond measure. I had dove
the world. I have been tothe Great Barrier reefs, Oh wow,
wow, the Caribbean Dove, theRed Sea, Far Pacific Ocean, lakes
and rivers. It's just it's anincredible story. That is great. Now,
(14:18):
I mean, are you Are youa big fisherman? I am.
A matter of fact, I loadedup while I was waiting to go on
with you, fellas. I loadedup the truck. We're gonna drive ever
to uh Sloop Point where we keepour boat. I got a twenty five
foot scout and my wife and Iare going to go out and just use
some inland fish and we're not goingto go offshore. I promise, Oh
(14:39):
man, I tell you you know. And that was one of the questions
I wanted I was gonna have foryou too, is you know, had
you been back on the ocean.I know this, we're you know,
we're really close to UH when theexperience happened. But I didn't know if
you had been back in the oceanand if you had any reservations just yet
about going back out there. Well, I gotta be honest with you.
(15:01):
I thank you for that question.You know, what kept us alive is
not being controlled by fear, andI have a deep, deep respect for
the ocean before even this happened onSunday night, Sunday afternoon. But I'll
go back out and I'll probably godiving again, but I can tell you
(15:22):
this, I'm going to make somecourse corrections. My Navy's career kicked in
and helped us go through some proceduralsteps. I really didn't leave kept us
alive, But I gotta give ahuge shout out to the Navy and the
Coastguard because they had they had theC one thirty in the air looking for
us, and they came over usabout just before one am Monday morning,
(15:48):
and it was on their last pastthat they saw our strode. But my
son, Brandon is a rescue swimmercoastguard. He's retired medically. He had
he had a severe injury back inabout five six years ago, so they
medically retire him. But he said, Dad, I made calls all up
and down the sectors to find outwhat was going on. He goes and
(16:08):
there was another C one thirty enroute from Clearwater, Florida to take over
the search after the Elizabeth Citty.C one thirty was gonna feel off.
Well wow, oh man, let'sreal quick. Let's talk about it.
What you know? I know theone question everybody has, what happened?
(16:29):
You know? Can can you talkabout that? I mean, do you
do you? I mean, obviouslyy'all know what happened. I mean,
where was the confusion or anything ofthat nature, But you know, maybe
describe. We've got time for youto describe to dive you wrong, what
got and what the plan was andthen how things turned out. I think,
you know, I'd love to haveyou for an hour or more because
I know you and I are gonnahave plenty to talk about it, and
(16:51):
we might do that this week,and I'm gonna come visit you somewhere and
we'll get that done. But fortoday's purposes, let's talk about what happened.
Exactly what happened. Okay, Well, I'll try to stick to us
near my memory can serve me.So here's what happened. I got my
friend who earns the boat Big Billsis in Holden Beach, North Carolina,
(17:15):
and he has been, you know, a friend since seventh grade up in
Raleigh, going through junior high inhigh school. And his name is Willie
Carter. He and Willie said,hey, Ben, we love you to
go dive. And Luke, youknow, his son is a great,
great kid. So I'm so impressedwith that young man. He's actually a
Patty Master diver, so he instructspeople in open water dive and in certified
(17:38):
with them. So I felt confidentin his ability. We headed out of
myrtle, I'm sorry, headed outof Holden Beach in his boat, which
is a little over thirty something feetlong, about seven thirty Sunday morning.
And it was a doctor Dan Williamson board with his son Evan and two
(18:00):
other sons that were younger, butEvan is sixteen and I had just met
him for the first time when Iboarded his boat. UH let me fast
forward. We headed out through theindlet out a Holden Beach and headed to
the Dife site that they had dovemany times and uh was known for,
(18:22):
you know, great spear fishing.So it was about just about a two
hour transit. And I might bewrong on the time we departed. I
didn't really look at my watch,but I remember we we got there and
uh Luke threw a buoy in thewater and I didn't see the weight on
the bottom of the buoy, butI was told it was ten pounds.
(18:45):
So you know when we arrived onDife site and about and our dive was
going to be about a forty twominute dive at about eighty feet. The
deepest Jeff, we were going toincur was about ninety and uh a console
on the regulator at the first stageyou would, you know, compute your
bottom time. But I know frommemory what the depth times, depth and
(19:07):
times are, so I was goingto stick to that. Dan doctor Dan
and his son got in the waterfirst and went ahead and you know,
went down to go fish or spearfishthis ledge that there, so you know
popular and I just I'm just likenot in a hurry. So I said,
(19:33):
Luke, when you're ready, youknow, we'll splash. So I
got dressed out. I was wearinga shorty. Everyone else was wearing a
long sleeve and a long leg wetsuit. So you know, we the water
was really calm. I mean it'svery calm. So we uh got ready,
got our stuff on. I said, okay. I rolled off the
port side aft. He rolled offthe starboard side. After we met off
(19:56):
the stern and we had the boathad drifted a little off the story.
So we came around and got togetherand I said, let's swim towards the
book. We started swimming towards Ithink we made the decision just go ahead
and drop there and then we'd beon the ledge. Well, we got
down to about eighty five feet andthere was no ledge, and it was
(20:17):
just flat bottom of the you know, little rocky structure. But the rock
structure didn't jet up more than abouta foot. He looks around, We
get a three sixty. He gaveme the hand signal for surfacing. So
we started surfacing and you know,you got us as a diver's out there
listening. You know, you don'twant to exceed your bubble ascent rate,
(20:37):
no matter how long you've been down. So we started heading to the surface.
But we pop up on the surfaceand we're one hundred and fifty yards
from the boat. The current hadalready pulled us that far. I said,
oh, man, so we weretrying to swim to it. And
some time after that, and Idon't know the number of minutes because I
wasn't glancing at my watch. Iwas more concerned with, you know,
(20:57):
keeping the boat at a close distance. Sometime after we surfaced, you know,
within ten or fifteen minutes, doctorDan Williams and his son's surface.
Well by this time, we're threehundred yards from the boat, and so
we started, you know, goingthrough a bunch of you know, I
said, guys, get over here, this all stay together, and they
(21:18):
were saying the same thing. Imean, we used to say this.
This isn't This story is not aboutBen Wiggins and his miraculous Darien dude.
This story is about how God steppedin at the right time and saved all
four of us. That I needto say that first and foremost because without
God being involved in this, Iwouldn't be talking to you right now.
Yeah, my faith is strong andit's even stronger now, and I believe
(21:41):
there's this too. But we we'veSoon after we realized we weren't making any
headway on the surface because of thesurface current, we we quickly went into
the We have these divered noodles andmost people who dive no there. They're
inflatable about six foot long, neoncolored, long elongated balloon looking things that
(22:04):
made a nylon that you can waveand get people's attention because they have a
contrast against the water. Unfortunately,what we found out and wasn't until we
were rescued much later. H Williewas focused on the bully and thinking we
were going to come up on that, and when he didn't see us come
up on that at the prescribe timeand to die if he started getting really
(22:25):
panicky, which you can imagine,I can imagine. Yeah, I'll pause
there. If you have any questions. I don't want to just no,
I think, I think, Ithink you keep on going. You're going
right where we wanted to go.Okay, okay, so anyway, we
uh, we quickly realized that,you know, we weren't going to be
(22:47):
able to make any headway. AndI said, okay, guys, we
need to go into survival modes.So we need to drop our weight belts
and if you have any fish.They had the Williams team had a hog
nosed snapper and a good sized lopperin a catch back. I should drop
the whole back. We don't wantany blood in the water. Get rid
of it. We dropped that.We dropped our weight belts. We had
four spear guns. I said,we can hang on to these for now,
(23:07):
but be very careful which way youpoint those spears. And they,
you know, if anybody knows spearguns, the tips unscrewed from the end
of the spear and they just kindof dangle on a little short stead cable,
which doesn't make it, you know, more of a threat. And
I said, we cannot afford tohave a drop of blood going the water,
guys, or we'll be done.So they said absolutely, and we
all had a you know, theoverall attitude was good. It was there
(23:30):
was good, uh, you know, positive attitude, you know, but
you go, I'm gonna fast forwardhere, guys, because we're drifting now
they both getting further further away,and I said, okay, guys,
and we kept swimming. I meanwe swam e We swam probably at least
trying to keep the distance from youknow, gaining on us, probably until
(23:56):
early afternoon. I mean we're swimmingthat long, I mean, kicking towards
the boat. And then it justgot hopeless and more hopeless as we looked
in. The boat just got furtherand further way. The wave action picked
up a little bit. The windand the current. If you got all
you fishermen out there, no,if the wind and the current is both
coming from the same direction, you'remaking a huge amount of time on the
(24:17):
surface in terms of blowing. Wedisched our weight belts and as much way
as we could then because we wantedto present a higher profile in the water
by being less weighted down. That'swhat I learned in the navy. But
at some point I said, okay, we got to start losing some tanks
too, because they're heavy. Minewas still had sixteen hundred and fifty pounds
of air in my tank, soI mean, if I'd have pulled it
(24:41):
out and dropped it, it wouldhave sunk like a rock. Doctor Williams
lost his tank and he went andditched his I think the only other person
that kept the tank was was Glukebecause he's a very experienced, you know,
diver. He said he wanted tohang onto it to keep his BC
inflated. And I said, well, I can use mind to and fleet
in lay our BC's with a powerinflator, so you don't have to use
(25:03):
your breath because the more you blowout, the more you're gonna dehydrate.
Anyway, we just kept drifting anddrifting and drifting. We saw frying pan
tower off to our Wow, youcould see it, yes, we could,
but it was a good six milesaway, six to eight miles.
We saw a helo. Well,when we back up, we saw a
shark. Right around three pm.Luke was right by me, Doctor Williams
(25:26):
was right by him, and Evanhad broken from our group about eight feet
away, and he goes Dad,a shark. He just screams it out.
I said, his dad goes getout of here now. So his
dad called him in. I said, guys, we gotta stay tied together
because if we present a scattered arrayon the water, we're more vulnerable.
So we gotta stay together. Sowe stayed together and just kept drifting and
(25:48):
drifting and drifting, and we sawa helo about eight miles from us doing
two miles sweeps, but every timethey turned, they turned inland and not
outward towards US. Coast guards cognizinto that and they're adjusting their fire because
of that. Luke also had aGPS Garman watch on, one of the
most most loaded with features you canget, and he was dropping breadcrumbs because
(26:14):
I'm gonna drop breadcrumbs in case theycan pick this up at some point and
they'll see our drift, our setand drift. I'm gonna tell you the
kid is he's one of the brightestkids I've ever met. He did that
every fifteen minutes. He dropped thebread crumb to establish our drifts. And
a matter of fact, the coastguard reached out to him and they've got
that now and they're using that toadjust future search patterns if they ever have
(26:38):
to, because they were not tracking. We were drifting that fast. We
drifted twenty eight miles before they pickedus up. Good God, twenty eight
miles. Yep I said to Luke, I said, are you sure,
because mister bean. We drifted twentyeight miles by the time we got in
this in this life rash, mostsixteen and a half hours in the water.
(27:03):
But I'll tell you this, guys, I gotta tell you this because
yeah, you got to speak tomorrowmy church. I got a little bit
of time. I know, whenthe sunset and the darkness really really set
in. I've never seen a moredark sky because I've been on navy vessels,
you know, with my team EODT. I was a Navy eod diver
for for twenty four years, andI've seen the ocean at night, But
I've never seen the ocean in thisblack because it was no moon, which
(27:26):
actually I think was a good thing. I don't know. You fisherman out
there could tell me if I'm wrong, But we were not highlighted on the
surface by a full or a quartermoon, which didn't put a silhouette of
something floating on the surface, whichI hope was in our favor. I
think Bat and God and everything elsecertainly was. But when everything became evident
that we were not going to befound before sunset, at some point my
(27:52):
church all banded together and went infor a prayer vigil. Around nine o'clock,
my wife came upstairs and gotten herprayer clause after she did communion,
and she told me why, Andyou know, those of you who are
believers out there know what communion isfor. She wanted to be right before
she offered up prayers, and Ibelieve she loosed angels all across the heavens
(28:15):
and they circled around us and protectedus. Because listen, did you guys
know if you fish off shore,there's sharks all over the coast of North
Carolinas, and and we'd already seenone, so you know, it was
just a miracle that we had noencounters. We had none. I mean,
after after it got dark, allI did was just keep looking up.
(28:37):
And you don't know if you guysknow about that bid August meteor shower,
but it was on full display aboutI think I missed the first one
around nine thirty ten o'clock, andthen it got so black you really couldn't
see your hand from your face,and they were streaking across the sky in
every direction. I said, youknow what, those are the angels coming
in to protect us on chariot.That's what I stuck with. I just
(29:00):
kept saying, God, I knowyou got this, and I know you're
going to rescue us. I toldthose guys, I said, keep saying
we're going to be rescued, andkeep praying without ceasing, no negative comments.
Just keep keep focused on our positivemindset. And that's what did it.
I mean, we got picked.We saw you know, lights all
over the top of the sky,but we weren't sure if they were drums
(29:22):
or what looking for us. Butwhen we saw the great green and red
wing tip lights so that one thirtywe heard it. Luke says to me,
I hear a plane and I said, oh my gosh. I started
looking and we all about saw itat the same time. I said,
there it is. I should getthe lights on. So we started turning
the lights on. Luke had,thank god, that board brought that Strode
(29:44):
bike and he turned it on andit just it flashes so os and it
was you know, that's what thepilot saw. If you saw the interview,
he goes, I looked down andsaw that coming down the left side
of the aircraft. I turned towardshim and then we found them. And
that was about forty five am andthey went by, they dropped mark fifty
eighth flare in the water, whichI said, thank you God. I
(30:06):
said, guys, we're going home. They know we're here, and uh,
they came by again. They droppeda medkid I think. And then
the third pass they dropped a raftand I'm not kidding you, they drop
that raft less than fifty meters fromus. I heard it smack the water
so loud. I thought I wasgonna get sashed to day. Hey,
I think, hey, you youwouldn't mind it. It didn't matter where
that thing land did, right.Yeah, we were going towards it and
(30:30):
I said, come boys, let'sgo. And you could hear it inflating
the air My son told me,he goes Dad. When they released it
out in the back of the aircraft, it starts inflating, so it it
hits the water, you know,partially inflated, and it was fully inflated
by the time we swammed to it, which took probably less than a minute
to swim to it. I mean, God bless the coast guard, whoever,
whoever the spotter was that dropped that. I'm gonna go find him.
(30:52):
I think they're up in Elizabeth City. I'm gonna go find him. And
I'm gonna go give him a bighug because they dropped that thing. It
was no effort to get to it. So uh. Right about the same
time that happened, and we gotall climbed in the boat, the life
raft, the USS porter comes outof the dark and it's standing off about
three hundred and fifty yards or so, and they launched their small boat to
(31:14):
come over to us, and thenthey got us, retrieved us. They
stabbed holes in the the inflated raftraft because they didn't want someone to see
the next day, I think therewas another rescue to see and just you
know, divert the coast Guard rightsto a you know, a false call.
So we headed back to the porterand they took us on board and
it was man, I'll tell youwhat, guys, they treated us like
(31:36):
royalty espess they get as dry closed. They took us to medical and checked
us out and make sure everyone wasokay, you know, other than dehyt
gration and uh in severe sunburn.We all came through this with a testimating
Wow, huge testimating that is thatis great you do and I'll tell you
what you know. Unfortunately, wedo have to go and get out of
here, but being I want youand I were going to get together first
(32:00):
to the week and figure something out, because I do want to sit down,
sit down, face to face,and I want to there's a lot
more to be shared in this storyand I want, I want to come
sit down with you and do that, so you and I will get to
work on that. But we can'tthank you enough. You've got We've got
everything from high school kids over here, we've got women, we got D
and R. Everybody's sitting here andif you could see their faces while you're
(32:22):
telling that story, I'm hoping everybodywas listening out there and in Fishhead Nation,
in the Gator Nation. But wecan't thank you enough for taking the
time and talking with us this morning, and again, this story deserves a
lot more time. There's a greatarticle, great story and posting career that
was done this week, and ifyou can go find that, I'll share
(32:43):
it. I'll get it up there. But you and I'll get together,
Ben, and thank you once againso much. And I hope you and
your wife go have an incredibly enjoyableday on the water today and just get
to ay you get to relax andlove on each other. Absolutely, and
thank you too, guy for everyonewho had anything to do with me being
on here. I appreciate it andi'd be I look so forward to seeing
(33:05):
you, man, I think we'vegot to I love how the new friendships
have been born out of this,and I feel like I've got a lifelong
friend on the other end of thisline. And I can't wait to meet
some of your partners too. Youguys do an awesome job. And the
information you put out earlier about thewater, the D and R guy you
had on I was sitting there inthe bathroom next to my wife Laura,
and we were both just sticking ourheads, and yet he is so spot
(33:30):
on with what he's saying. Thankyou so much, and I look forward
to got a number. Just callme whenever and we'll get together. Okay,
brother, we will be in Thankyou so much, my friend.
Y'all take care, all right,all right, all right, hey,
Jenna, I think it's time toI think it's time to get on out
of here. And I apologize towhoever's coming on behind us for still in
three minutes. But I'll take care. I'll take care of that with mister
(33:52):
Jimmy. But I don't think thatstory right there could have been cut off
short. No way, listen.We want to thank Matt here in the
family, come all outfitters for havingus over here and welcome Matt to the
team. Sir, welcome Jason Burton, the flounder Pounder to the team.
I feel like he's already been apart of the bovav I'm already were part
of the team, but now we'remaking an official so and listen. Thanks
(34:14):
to Tony the bassmaster for entertaining RussRush so I can do some radio show
today. And I've not heard anybody'sscream, so they have not caught any
fish. But y'all listen. TheSpanish microL World Championships this weekend Thursday night.
The rapple ticket at a raffle atUncle Tito's at Thursday night at six
thirty. Friday night, Captain's beatingRegistration at Uncle Tito's five o'clock at starts.
You can come get registered and thenSaturday, of course we'll be chasing
(34:37):
Spanish Michel and we're gonna be givenaway that beautiful father, Father and sons
services trophies along with five thousand plusand cash. So make sure you get
signed up and we'll be back nextweek. We're gonna be recorded. We're
gonna have a good time this week. Wherever we record it. I might
we may have just figured out wherewe're gonna record it and how we're gonna
(34:59):
record it. But thank you guysso much, and so on. Behalf
of Captain Matt, Welcome all outfitters, Captain Flounder Pounder, the Jason Burton
of myrls and the Fishing Charters,the one and only Bassmaster Tony Carter and
Russ Russ, and of course SuperJenna back in the studio keeping us straight.
I am Captain E and this hasbeen the Southern English radio show on
(35:19):
the Gator one oh seven point nine
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