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The fisherman and father of seven who rescued two cousins adrift in the Atlantic on paddle boards said his fatherly instinct had led him to run off and start searching.
Last month Sara Feeney (23) and her 17-year-old cousin Ellen Glynn wowed the country after disappearing from Furbo Beach in Galway.
Quickly washed out to sea, they spent the night enduring dire weather conditions before being rescued by local fisherman Patrick Oliver and his 18-year-old son Morgan.
Oliver admitted that his fatherly instincts had played a role in his decision to take out his fishing boat and join the search as the country desperately awaited news in a seemingly sinister situation.
“When I first heard [the next] Morning…[Sarah’s] mother on the beach, watching them disappear into the distance… as soon as we found out we were leaving, ”he said on Friday’s Late Late Show, where the four of them were reunited once more.
In total, the cousins spent 15 hours in the water. Its discovery and rescue the next morning wowed the nation, a conspicuous good news story amid a seemingly endless pandemic.
The father and son rescue team was widely praised for using their local knowledge to estimate their location.
“When we went out to the water we read the conditions of both. We took turns since we left the docks, driving the boat and looking around, ”Oliver said.
“The night before the north wind came from the north coast. It was a breeze from the high seas. The girls are literally sitting on the tables; they are two corks in the water and the wind took them directly ”.
They drew a line from Furbo Beach with the wind towards Inis Oirr, heading south between the island and the Cliffs of Moher, and finally saw their oars waving in the air.
The cousins admitted that before they realized the seriousness of their situation, they felt a bit embarrassed at the prospect of needing to be rescued.
However, Oliver paid tribute to his stoicism given the difficult weather conditions at night. The women had strapped their paddleboards to a lobster pot that prevented them from drifting out to the Atlantic, and their life jackets played an important role in the survival story.
“We found them, but they were saved,” he said.
Describing her moment of salvation, Ellen said it was a bit fuzzy.
“When they came to us it was like I couldn’t believe this was real, they were actually coming for us,” he said.
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