Family thought they were going to ‘die’ when boat capsized—all four beat the odds to survive in an unbelievable way
If you have ever found yourself in a life-or-death situation, the most important thing at that moment is to have the determination to get out of it. Similarly, when Patrick Solomon and his family's boat capsized during a trip, their determination to give it their all to live helped them survive, CBN reported. Journeying with his wife, Yolanda, and his daughters, Samaria and Sa-Miya, he did not know whether they would make it out alive. However, they did everything they could, and it saved them. The family set out on a boating trip in San Francisco. Unfortunately, it turned from a family memory to something terrifying. "The boat was stuck a little bit, so we had to push the boat," Patrick recalled.
Initially, they did not think the issue would be very concerning. But things quickly took a drastic turn. The boat was going deeper and it was too late before they realized the water was getting in. "It just didn't go back out. And I remember seeing the front of the boat just sinking a little. I felt that was it. We're gonna die," Yolanda remarked. Everything happened so fast and with the water gushing in, the boat flipped. All four were trapped in the waters and none of them knew how to swim. It was bad news on all fronts and the only shot at survival and rescue was from the Solomons themselves. The family had separated into different parts of the boat after it capsized.
When the dad saw "darkness," he knew he was drowning. "I was looking at myself drowning. I could feel myself giving up," he recounted. And that's when an extraordinary ray of hope stepped in. "I heard the voice tell me, 'Don't panic.' It was very calm and subtle. And once I heard that voice, I shot back into myself," he said. He quickly maneuvered himself and moved upward. The next thing he knew, something "pulled" him up and he found himself on top of the boat. To his relief, he saw Sa-Miya, his oldest, at the side, holding onto the boat.
The sisters were near each other when they fell into the water. Samaria was starting to drown, but she quickly got hold of her sister, who was smart enough to hold on to the boat so she wouldn't be pulled into the water by the weight. "I held onto it as I was holding her. God just helped me stay above the water," Sa-Miya said. Yolanda was on the other end of the boat, trying to hold her breath as there was no air around her. "I used my fingertips to slide across the boat. I just felt suffocated and I said, 'God, if you show me some type of light, I'm just gonna do all I can to get to the top of that light,'" the mom recalled.
Her prayers were heard and she spotted a faint glimpse. She quickly moved up towards it until she made her way to the top. Another group of boaters found her and rescued her. "It was the most beautiful thing to witness people that don't even know you coming to our rescue," she remarked. The mom quickly went over to their capsized boat and found Patrick. "I remember seeing him hunched over but I didn't know why. When I crawled to him a little bit more, I could see my babies. He was holding them up so that they wouldn't continue to sink down in the water," Yolanda said. The family had beaten the odds and survived the ordeal. They only had God to credit. “God is real. And he's here, he's watching, every step of the way, he's with us,” he said.