Man and friends were fishing when boat started to sink — his girlfriend’s last-minute gift saved their lives

An astonishing and unexpected gift saved the lives of 5 friends when their boat capsized in the Gulf of Mexico, reported BOATING. Connor and 4 of his friends had gone boating when their boat began to sink. Easton Barrett, one of the friends, had even recorded a farewell message as the group saw no way out. To everyone’s surprise, in the last moments, Connor recalled that his girlfriend had given him a small, seemingly insignificant, last-minute gift before he left for the outing. The very item turned out to be life-saving and got all 5 back to safety. 

In an interview with former Sea Tow captain Aaron Stasiak, founder of Qualified Captain, Barrett revealed that they were stranded for around 5 hours and they were prepared to embrace the worst. With his battery at 10 percent, he recorded a video on TikTok capturing their helpless state, making his farewell. “In a matter of seconds, half our motors were underwater,” he recalled. With their life jackets and flotation devices to hold them up for as long as possible, they were all worried sick, trying their best to do whatever possible and fetch help. 

Barrett said that he recorded a short clip where he mentioned that the boat was sinking and said, “I love you,” to his family and dog. “It was just something to ease their mind,” he noted. He put his phone into a dry cooler they had in hopes of it being found if the worst happened. As they dug through their bags to look for items, they stumbled upon the gift. Connor’s girlfriend handed him a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) right before their trip. The group didn’t care much about it until they spotted it at the terrifying time. Barrett noted that he’d been familiar with boats and water for years but never heard of a PLB.

The device is as small as a deck of cards and calls for help from anywhere in the world. It uses radio frequency and satellite networks to send signals. Connor and his friends gave the PLB a shot. He tried to follow the instructions printed, as they had no idea how it worked. “We had the PLB and the light was flashing, but we had no idea how it worked. We didn’t know if rescue was coming. We didn’t know how long we were going to be out there. But there we were, just hitting the button,” he remarked. The hours of waiting were miserable. “There was panic here and there. The water was getting colder, so people were shivering because hypothermia can kick in after so long,” he recalled.

After the long wait, Barrett finally spotted “something orange” up in the sky. Turns out, the PLB did signal for help. The Coast Guard reached the location coordinates given by the device. However, the group had floated off from there sometime later. “We were drifting at 4.1mph southeast. We [were] going towards Cuba, and there [were] no islands in sight,” Barrett recalled. The guard wasn’t sure what to look for as the device had only sent a signal, no information.

“What made me so mad is they’re looking for us and we could see them, but they couldn’t see us,” he said. Finally, after many failed but persistent attempts, the 5 men were rescued when they decided to lift the heavy cooler to be spotted. He shared a video of himself and his friends back in a rescue boat. “We made it!” he said. “All of a sudden, the boat came up to a plane. I’m like, Thank God, they found us. They found us, and we [were] all crying. I tell you, that was the happiest day of my life. I’d rather have that over winning the lottery any day,” Barrett exclaimed.

You can follow Easton Barrett (@eastonbarrett) on TikTok for more content on lifestyle.