Florida Beach Memories
Sometimes, when you’re talking about Florida beaches, all of the memories are happy and all of the stories are about time combing for shells on the beach, making sandcastles with the kids. Sometimes, however, there are stories that don’t end as well - and of course, there are also stories like the one from this past weekend in Ponce Inlet:
(source)Saturday evening, Marino took Chris, who is autistic, to the beach at Ponce Inlet south of Daytona Beach. Chris floated away and Marino tried to bring him back, but a strong outgoing current carried them about 10 miles from land and separated them by miles.
Their family reported them missing, and Coast Guard crews from the Ponce Inlet station, in a boat and helicopter, spent all night searching for them. After daylight, a private boat found Marino adrift and handed him over to the Coast Guard.
Then a Coast Guard helicopter from Clearwater took over the search. Petty Officer 1st Class David Dunstan, a flight mechanic, spotted Chris about an hour later and a mile farther out to sea.
The way that the story worked out, the boy floated on his back and treaded water through the night; accorning to the Coast Guard, he did everything right and made their job easy. In other words, when it comes to Florida beach memories, this one started great, got pretty scary, but ended well - and that’s the important thing.
