IT was Sunday morning, April 7, and the weather was not too bad for trolling fishing, so me and my brother-in-law Jeffrey decided to go out fishing. We left Sugar Dock past 6 a.m. and went straight out to the sea for tuna fishing. While we were fishing, the sea started to get rough, but we caught tuna and mahi. Later we were around Tinian when we decided to head back to Saipan due to the rough sea.
As we approached Sugar Dock Channel, it was very rough and we decided that we could still get into the channel. So we waited and counted the big waves that came through the channel and when everything was clear we went straight to the channel. As we proceeded to the channel, one very big wave came behind us and flipped our boat forward, throwing Jeffrey out while I held onto on the boat steering wheel. It was very sudden and both of us did not know what hit us.
All of a sudden, the boat turned upside down and I was under the boat while my brother-in-law Jeffrey was nowhere. I dove down to come out of the boat, but when I came up, I was under the boat canvass again so I dove for the second time and came out of the boat. I saw my brother in law Jeffrey drifting very fast from a distance so I yelled at him and told him not to panic and to swim toward me. But he was weak and drowning fast and the current was so strong so I swam toward him and told him to grab my hand and thank God he did!
We swam to the boat and stayed afloat on the top of the capsized boat.
I dove again to get the flare gun and came up to the boat. At that moment, I was very careful not to drop the flare gun since this was our last hope for someone to see us and get help. I popped all the bullets and thank God a couple of people from the beach area saw the flare and called 911.
DPS Boating Safety responded to our rescue and the last word we said was “Thank you God for not letting us drown.” We were picked up and brought toward Sugar Dock where our families were waiting.
We wrote this letter to share our frightening experience at sea and, most important of all, to say deep down from our hearts, thank you to all the people that in one way or another rescued us. Our families and especially both of us are so much grateful to be alive because of the people that helped us. We want to thank you once again from the bottom of our hearts: Juan S. Roberto for calling 911; a lady from Hotel Aquarius who also saw us from her binocular and called 911; the Boating Safety crews who risked their lives to save us, Sgt. Johnny Tomei, Capt. Calley Camacho of the Big Boyz Jet Ski Concession, Officers Michael A. Camacho, Ray Dowai; to all our families who came down to Sugar Dock and showed their support and concern for the two of us; and to the rest of the people whose names may not be included on this list––thank you and Si Yuus Maase.
JEFFREY SONGAO SANTOS
Koblerville, Saipan
MARIO MUNA REYES
As Perdido, Saipan
