What began as a simple family outing to celebrate a milestone birthday became a fight for survival far out on the Florida coast.
Four relatives—spanning three generations—found themselves clinging to the underside of their capsized boat for more than 20 hours before help finally reached them.
Setting Out With High Spirits
On Monday morning, Clarence Woods, 90, joined his nephew Dennis, 70, along with Cris Harding Sr. and his teenage son, for what was supposed to be a relaxed fishing trip near Clearwater.
Their green-and-white catamaran, humorously named Money Well Wasted, pushed off the Seminole Street Boat Ramp around 9:30am, with everyone in good spirits and Dennis ready to ring in his 70th year.
Disaster Strikes in Minutes
The calm day didn’t last. Just after midday, Dennis noticed water rushing into one side of the boat.
Before the group could react, the catamaran rolled.
“It happened in under five minutes,” Dennis later told police.
“All I could think about was getting the life jackets secured on the 90-year-old and the 18-year-old.”
There was no chance to call for help, and the gear meant for emergencies—flares, strobes, supplies—vanished when the vessel flipped.
A Long Night in the Open Ocean
When the men failed to return home by 8:30pm, worried relatives alerted authorities, knowing the group was hours overdue.
Meanwhile, the four boaters were battling rising waves in the dark.
They spotted a Coast Guard helicopter sweep past overhead but had no way to signal.
“The night was brutal,” Dennis recalled. “We ended up climbing onto the rigging to get out of the water as much as we could.”
Most of their energy went toward protecting Clarence, who kept getting knocked off balance by the rough sea.
Finally, a Breakthrough at Dawn
At sunrise on Tuesday—around 7:15am—an HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft out of Air Station Miami finally spotted the overturned vessel more than 26 miles west of Clearwater Passage.
Seas were choppy, winds steady, and only a small portion of the boat remained visible above water.
Rescuers deployed a life raft and a marine location marker to guide the rescue boat in.
The Moment Hope Returned
Coast Guard footage showed the family waving furiously as the rescue crew approached through early-morning swells.
One of the men even managed a shaky double thumbs-up.
Savannah O’Dell, a Coast Guard member on the rescue boat, said the team was especially worried about Clarence. “He was on the outside of the group.
We were relieved to see he was still hanging in there.”
Safety at Last
All four men were lifted aboard and immediately wrapped in towels and given fluids.
Emergency crews waited back at the station, where three of the survivors were later hospitalized overnight for dehydration, hypothermia, and minor injuries.
O’Dell said hearing their gratitude made the moment especially meaningful: “We train constantly, but doing the real rescues—that’s the best part of our job.”
Reunited With Loved Ones
As they arrived back on land, one of the men was carried off on a stretcher while the rest embraced their family members waiting anxiously at the dock.
“It turned into a pretty memorable birthday,” Dennis joked, now safely back on dry ground.
Looking Ahead
After surviving nearly a full day in the unforgiving Gulf waters, the family is expected to recover fully—and they know just how lucky they were.
As Dennis’s sister told reporters, “It’s a miracle. Truly.”
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