trawlertom1/Tiktok
A Florida boat captain has become a hero after performing a surprising rescue at sea – and he caught it all on video.
Boater Tom Korinek rescued stranded kayaker Davey Wright on June 28 after spending several hours at sea. Korinek, who also goes by Trawler Tom on TikTok, recorded the interaction and shared it with his followers on social networks.
In the clip, a disheveled Wright stood on the side of Korinek’s boat holding a life jacket.
“My f—— kayak literally fell off, probably, I don’t know…probably two and a half miles ago,” Wright told Korinek in the video. “Every boat I screamed on, man.”
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“Thank you so much for stopping, bro,” he told Korinek.
“Right here to save lives,” the captain captioned his TikTok video. “I’m cruising around 4am and I hear someone screaming for help. I’m usually alone and I take safety equipment very seriously. This man is lucky to be alive today’ today.”
Korinek added more details in the comments section of the video, responding to a viewer who said how thrilled Wright must have felt after being rescued.
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“When I turned around I was screaming and he wasn’t screaming back. I think he was about to give up when he realized I was coming,” Korinek said.
According to WPBF, Wright took to the water on June 27 for a brief fishing trip. He then loaned his kayak to someone else at a sandbar two miles away, who he says must have damaged it.
WARNING: The video below contains explicit language
When he started paddling his way back to shore around 11 p.m., the boat began to sink.
“As I was running out of energy and a storm was coming up, it was getting worse and worse and worse and worse and basically I had to give up all the possessions in the world,” Wright said at the point of sale. “Super cold, chattering teeth, locked muscles, this happened hours ago so I’m pre-hypothermic, hypothermic.”
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After spending five hours in cold water, Korinek’s boat appeared, according to WPBF.
“I was screaming mayday, mayday, I’m a fisherman in the water, I don’t have a boat,” Wright said.
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According to the local media, the captain took Wright back to the dock in Fort Pierce, Florida. They met a few days later on the dock for a small reunion, celebrating their new found friendship.
“You are my guardian angel, Tom. Thank goodness you were there,” Wright told Korinek, per WPBF.
The captain organized a GoFundMe to help Wright replace all the fishing gear and kayak he lost, along with “new water safety gear and a big whistle.”
Now that they’ve become good friends, the couple are looking to start a business together that promotes water safety, Korinek wrote in the GoFundMe description.
