An 80-Year-Old Man Went Spearfishing Under Water Off the Coast of Florida. When He Surfaced, His Boat Was Gone

YOU NEED TO KNOW

• 80-year-old man survived 18 hours at sea after his boat drifted while spearfishing

• The experience was “terrible,” Ignacio Siberio told PEOPLE in a 2005 interview.

• “I realized the only way to achieve this was with my mind,” he said shortly after his rescue.

Ignacio Siberio was 80 years old when he sailed his 25-foot boat about seven miles off the Florida Keys to spearfish. The date was December 11, 2005, and Siberio was a civil attorney and a skilled spearfisherman who often went into the water with his nephew.

When his nephew couldn’t make it that day, he chose to go alone, even though high winds and turbulent waters jeopardized the experience.

“I shouldn’t have been there,” Siberio told PEOPLE a few months later.

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Siberio dived into the ocean with his harpoon and hunted for three hours before deciding to return home. When he surfaced, his boat was gone; It was the victim of an unmoored storm front.

Siberio could see the boat from afar, which he tried to swim after for several hours, but he could not fully catch up.

“It was terrible,” she told PEOPLE.

At that point, exhausted, Siberio began treading water, worried that he would “be swept into the Florida Strait.”

But after wading for an hour, he saw five one-meter buoys floating together; He was swimming towards them and holding on as tight as he could. As temperatures dropped throughout the night, she tried to relax, later telling PEOPLE: “I realized the only way to make it through was with my mind.”

Unbeknownst to Siberio, his nephew and a friend had already begun a frantic search, asking the Coast Guard to go to his favorite fishing spots.

They found him early in the morning after he first left his boat: Siberio had cut the buoys and wrapped them around him. He was swimming towards the shore.

Siberio was hoisted onto the rescue ship about 18 hours after he first realized he was lost at sea. He then brought her home to Tavernier, Florida (he declined a hospital visit) and was greeted by loved ones led by his wife, Gloria, then 68 years old.

As PEOPLE reported at the time, the incident did little to quell his love of fishing, and it had already happened several times in the months immediately following.

“My lesson is you have to be careful,” he told PEOPLE. “Fortunately, I was able to bring happiness instead of sadness by coming home.”

To talk CBC radio After his rescue, Siberio stated that fate seemed to be on his side.

“I had my date of birth on the buoy I grabbed to stay all night,” he said. “I was born on July 31”^stand the buoy’s number was 731. Can you imagine this?”

Read the original article People