ANNA MARIA – Anna Maria resident John Rice’s swift actions likely saved the life of a kayaker whose kayak sank in Tampa Bay.
On Jan. 6 around 5 p.m., John and Tricia Rice were at their bayfront home on South Bay Boulevard, not far from where an abandoned 30-foot cabin cruiser had been anchored offshore for the past couple weeks.
“We were in between storms, a small craft warning had been issued and there was an offshore wind,” John said.
The boat’s anchor became dislodged, or the anchor line broke, and the boat started drifting toward the Sunshine Skyway.
“It was starting to get dark and the boat started floating out to sea,” John said. “All the sudden we see a guy go out on a very small kayak. He was in street clothes and wasn’t wearing a personal flotation device. Once he hit the wind line, he became unstable, flipped and started struggling. It was a tiny kayak and that thing filled with water and sank. He tried to swim back but there was an offshore breeze. He wasn’t getting anywhere and he started yelling for help.”
Tricia said, “I started to call 911 and John said, ‘I can’t sit here and wait for them and watch this guy die. I have to go get him.’ And he did.”
“I’m a windsurfer and I just got in a few hours earlier,” John said. “The water was about 62-63 degrees. I put a wetsuit on and took a life jacket with me. I grabbed a paddleboard and went out and got him. He was a couple hundred yards out, in the deep part, and he would have been taken out to sea. We didn’t have much daylight left, but I have a watch that I could make calls on if we got stranded out there.
“He was out of breath and definitely struggling. When I got to him, he grabbed the nose of the paddleboard and caught his breath. Then we slowly paddled back. It took a while because we were going against the wind and he had half his body on the front of my paddleboard. The Marine Unit arrived, but by that time I had him on shore,” John said.
The guy’s name was Dale. He said he wasn’t the owner of the boat and I guess he was being a Good Samaritan. He might have thought someone was on the boat but he never should have taken off like that in a small craft warning. He was shaken up and he thanked me, but he didn’t hang around. I think he refused medical treatment,” John said.
“The Marine Unit was out on the bay for hours. I saw their blue light out there,” Rice said, guessing they were searching for the boat adrift in the shipping lane.
Downplaying his heroic actions, John said, “It was no big deal.”
Tricia disagreed and said, “My husband’s being too modest. He was a lifeguard when he was a teenager. There’s no way that man would be alive if it wasn’t for him.”
When asked if she was nervous watching her husband paddle out to get the man, Tricia said, “I was. I told John I didn’t want him getting into trouble out there but he said he couldn’t sit there and watch the man die.”
John said they never saw the abandoned boat again.
