NEED TO KNOW
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An 80-year old man survived 18 hours at sea after his boat drifted while he was spearfishing
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Ignacio Siberio told PEOPLE in a 2005 interview that the experience was “terrible”
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“I realized the only way I was going to make it… 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 go spearfishing. It was Dec. 11, 2005 and Siberio was a practicing civil attorney and a skilled spearfisher who often went in the water with his nephew.
When his nephew couldn’t make it that day, he opted to go alone, even as gusty winds and choppy water threatened to derail the experience.
Speaking to PEOPLE a few months later, Siberio acknowledged, “I shouldn’t have been there.”
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Siberio dove into the ocean with his speargun, hunting for three hours before deciding to head home. When he surfaced, his boat was gone — a casualty of a storm front that had dislodged its anchors.
Siberio could see the boat in the distance — attempting to swim after it for several hours — but could not quite catch up.
“It was terrible,” he told PEOPLE.
At that point, exhausted, Siberio began treading water, worrying that he would “be swept into the Straits of Florida,” he said.
One hour of treading water later, though, he spotted five one-foot-long buoys floating together — swimming to them and holding on as tight as he could. As the temperatures dropped overnight, he tried to relax, telling PEOPLE later: “I realized the only way I was going to make it… was with my mind.”
Unbeknownst to Siberio, his nephew and a friend had already begun a frantic search, enlisting the Coast Guard to boat to his favorite fishing spots.
Early the morning after he first got separated from his boat, they found him: Siberio had cut the buoys and wrapped them around himself. He was swimming towards the shore.
Siberio was pulled into the rescue vessel about 18 hours after he first realized he was lost at sea. He was then brought him to his Tavernier, Fla., home (he refused a hospital visit), and greeted by loved ones led by his wife, Gloria, then 68.
As PEOPLE reported at the time, the incident did little to quell his love for fishing, and he had already been several times in the months immediately after.
“My lesson is you have to be careful,” he told PEOPLE. “Fortunately I was able to bring happiness instead of sadness by coming home.”
Speaking to CBC radio following his rescue, Siberio noted that fate seemed to be on his side.
“The buoy that I got hold of to stay all night had my date of birth,” he told the outlet. “I was born in July 31st, and the buoy had the number 731. Can you imagine that?”
Read the original article on People
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