MARION COUNTY, Fla. – Two Marion County deputies are receiving praise after rescuing a diver while they were on vacation in the Florida Keys.
The rescue happened last month as Lts. David Woolf and Eric Thoresen were six miles offshore from Sugarloaf Key on a fishing trip with their wives.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
“As I’m driving, I’m just kind of looking around and I see something flapping over to the right,” Woolf said.
The deputies thought it was an injured bird or a buoy but realized it was something, or rather someone, much different when they moved closer with their boat.
“We got closer, and I think probably within four or five hundred yards we could tell it was actually a person in the water,” Woolf said.
That person was a diver who had drifted away from land and was waving his fins for more than 30 minutes in the water.
“He had tried to flag a few other boats down, but they didn’t see him,” Thoresen said. “He was pretty happy to get in the boat with us.”
The deputies said the man was OK and they contacted the U.S. Coast Guard, who told them they just received a call about a lost diver.
After receiving GPS coordinates, the deputies were able to locate the diver’s partner and boat, which was more than two miles from where the diver was found.
“I don’t know if he knew exactly how strong the currents were,” Thorensen said. “If you’re 40 feet down and you’re having to come back up to the surface, you’re going to travel some distance even in those 40 feet or so just from the current alone.”
The deputies said the man got back on his boat and went on his way.
The actions of the two deputies have earned the admiration of Sheriff Billy Woods, who made sure the story was posted on the Marion County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page this week.
Woolf and Thorensen credit the possibly lifesaving move to being attentive while on the water and said anyone else would have done the same in their situation.
“This is nothing that nobody else wouldn’t have done anyway,” Woolf said. “It’s no different than a boater that runs out of gas. You try to help him out and get him back to shore.”
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: