Two Texas fishermen are stranded without cell phone service. All they have is a whistle that saves them.
Around 6:30 a.m. on December 4, Bart Giles and Stevie Rodriguez boarded Giles’ boat and headed for a fishing competition, Giles told CNN.
He noted that the light was still low at this point and they could only see what was right in front of them.
That’s when the boat got stuck, and the couple ran aground.
“Normally this area is covered with water, but that day it was just mud,” Giles told CNN.
To see how soft the ground was, Giles jumped out and dived to his chest in the mud.
Without cell phones, the fishermen sounded their emergency sirens. Giles began to sound the emergency signal, which was three short bursts.
“Suddenly, I heard dogs barking, and I said to my fishing partner, ‘If there’s a dog around, there must be a human.'” Giles explained.
A dog jumped up from some brush, and a man followed only about 300 yards from the boat on the Mexican side.
“That little $3 whistle is what saved us from spending a night there,” Giles told CNN.
The man found the rowers around 10 a.m. and called for help. But it wasn’t until about noon that the Texas game manager located the boat and began the rescue.
Giles told CNN.
“It was getting late at night, so we were the closest equipped ship ready for the call,” Hunter told CNN. They clear the helicopter and are joined by Sgt, the DPS rescue swimmer. Steve Tippett.
After an hour and 20 minutes by helicopter, they arrived at the scene.
“We had about 20 minutes to work before it got too dark to tackle the obstacles in the area,” Rodriguez told CNN.
It took about 15 minutes to unpack both men.
It took about 10 hours from when the men were stranded to when they returned to the mainland.
Giles advice to other anglers, “Make sure you have all the safety gear on and be sure to have that whistle.”
Giles told CNN that the boat has been restored and just needs to be cleaned and fixed with some equipment.
“This boat is irreplaceable. My grandmother bought it before she passed,” Giles added. “The last time she went sailing or fishing was on that boat.”
