Seven-Hour Swim: Real-Life Jaws

It’s August 1981. On a lazy Sunday, an impromptu sailboat trip around the coastal waters of Volusia County, Florida seems the perfect way to enjoy the sunshine. But then things start to unravel. One small setback becomes a series of disasters, leaving Tami Ennis and her friends stranded miles offshore, clinging to the underside of their sinking boat. Now they face a momentous choice. Stay where they are and risk drifting further out to sea? Or swim for land, through a stretch of water known as the shark bite capital of the world… A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. Written by Joe Viner | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound Supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Jacob Booth | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer, Dorry Macaulay | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by PayPal. Holiday rush? Skip the mall traffic and shop online with PayPal. Shop your favorite online stores like eBay, Fanatics, Walmart, Sephora, Target and TikTok Shop. And choose to pay now or pay later at checkout. Plus, pay in four with no interest and no late fees. Shop now with PayPal. Pay in four is subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com/payinfor. PayPal Incorporated, NMLS 910457.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  For decades, a shadowy organization called the Lemonati has kept lemon on top and lime in the shadows. Look around, lemon-forward sodas, even lemon-forward songs. We ran the tracks, slowed them down, reversed them, and squeezed out the truth. (singing) I'm a lemon. That's lemon propaganda right there. But now, 7-Up is fighting back with their new Lime Lemon Soda. Join the 7-Uprising. Flip the sip.

• 1:03John Hopkins?

  It's Monday, August the 10th, 1981. Florida's Atlantic coast. A near-unbroken 400-mile sweep of golden sand, fringed by rows of swaying palms and punctuated by soaring beachfront condos. Each year, millions of visitors flock to this coastline to stay in its luxury hotels, play its golf courses, and enjoy its balmy weather. But the main draw to this part of the world is the ocean. Heated by Gulf Stream currents pulling warm water from the tropics, Florida's stretch of the Atlantic has more in common with the Caribbean than it does with the rest of the East Coast. A glittering azure expanse.

• 1:48John Hopkins?

  But Florida's coastal waters are notable for something else. Something you wouldn't find on the cover of any tourist brochure. Because all the qualities that make this stretch of ocean so enticing for humans—its temperature, its plentiful fish, its quiet tidal inlets—also make it a perfect habitat for sharks.

• 2:12John Hopkins?

  Today, the ocean off the coast of Volusia County, Florida, is calm, a shade of blue one degree darker than the sky. A warm breeze blows, corrugating the water's surface. With more unprovoked attacks than anywhere on the planet, Florida is the shark-bite capital of the world. And of those attacks, the majority of them occur here, along Volusia County's 47 miles of coastline. About six miles offshore, out of sight of land, Tammy Ennis keeps her gaze fixed on the sky as she swims a steady backstroke. Clad only in a bikini, the 21-year-old's skin is blistered and peeling.

• 2:55John Hopkins?

  Her eyes burn from the salt water, but her face is a picture of concentration.

• 3:03Speaker 03

  I was going, okay, all I have to do is swim. And that was in my mind. Not that I was tired, not that I was cold, not that I was thirsty, or how long it would take, nothing. I said, all I have to do is stroke.

• 3:19John Hopkins?

  The sea spreads out around her, miles and miles of featureless ocean, crisscrossed by powerful surging currents. Below her, the fathoms plunge away into an immense black void, where animals twice Tammy's size lurk in the shadows. But guided by the position of the sun, she stays focused, following as best she can a straight course west in the direction of land. She can feel the water flowing past her face, the distance ebbing away meter by meter. Eventually, she will get there.

• 3:59John Hopkins?

  Tammy just needs to keep swimming and hope she doesn't encounter anything unpleasant along the way.

• 4:06Speaker 03

  I was thinking of everything that's in the sea and the ocean, but they were all further down underwater. And I was thinking, I'll just stay on the surface and swim. And then it was like right after that that I felt a bump on my leg.

• 4:26John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations, people suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet 21-year-old Tammy Ennis. One Sunday morning in August 1981, Tammy, a waitress in Daytona Beach, Florida, joins a sailboat trip just off the coast. For a while, it's all fun and games, until things start to unravel. Through a series of escalating calamities, Tammy and three others will find themselves

• 5:09John Hopkins?

  stranded six miles offshore, clinging to the hull of their capsized boat.

• 5:17Speaker 03

  As time progressed, we couldn't keep our feet on the pontoon anymore. We were sliding off, so we had to straddle so the pontoon was actually going under.

• 5:28John Hopkins?

  Trapped on a sinking vessel and faced with the possibility of drifting further out to sea, the foursome will have little choice but to try to swim for land, testing their luck against the ocean and the fearsome creatures for which this part of Florida is notorious.

• 5:43Speaker 03

  You don't even calculate how long you've been swimming, how long you've been out there, nothing. You don't think about any of that stuff. You just, you're swimming, and there's the goal line, and you gotta try and make it.

• 5:53John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

• 6:24John Hopkins?

  It's Sunday, August the 9th, 1981, in Daytona Beach, Florida. Tammy Ennis rolls over in bed and groggily opens her eyes. Dust swirls in the ribbons of sunlight filtering through cracks in the blinds. It's morning. Tammy yawns, stretches, and glances at her bedside table, with the blurry digits of her alarm clock gradually come into focus. The 21-year-old groans and buries her face in the pillow.

• 6:56Speaker 03

  I'd actually overslept that day, and it was usually the day I'd go watch the softball. The waiters, bartenders in Daytona would always have softball games and stuff on this day, and I'd overslept.

• 7:08John Hopkins?

  Tammy gets out of bed and pads through to the kitchen. She pours herself a cup of coffee, then wanders over to the couch, which is when the telephone rings. Tammy gets up, walks across the room, and picks up the receiver. Immediately, her brow furrows with surprise. It's her old neighbor, a college student named Randy. He used to live next door to Tammy before she moved into this condo, and while the two had always been perfectly cordial, they weren't exactly close. But Tammy's surprise at hearing from Randy only deepens when she hears what he's calling to say. A friend of his from Embry-Riddle, the local aeronautical college, has invited Randy and

• 7:51John Hopkins?

  his girlfriend Christie to spend the day on his sailboat. This friend, a guy named Daniel, is single, and Randy presents it to Tammy as a potential blind date, if she's interested.

• 8:04Speaker 03

  I'm sure I laugh, because nobody had set me up on a blind date before. And like I said, we weren't that close of friends. Of course, Embry-Riddle, that was kind of prestigious, the pilot school there and stuff. I thought, that's gonna be cool. But yeah, yeah, I was excited.

• 8:17John Hopkins?

  Tammy tells Randy she's on board. He says they'll meet her down at the beach in an hour or so. She puts the phone down, smiling. After oversleeping and missing her softball game, this feels like a serendipitous turn of events.

• 8:33John Hopkins?

  Tammy has lived in Daytona Beach for two years, and while she could easily pass for a sun-kissed Florida native, she's actually a Midwesterner, hailing from America's rural heartland.

• 8:46Speaker 03

  I actually was born in Indiana, in a small town, lived there for probably about six, eight years, and then moved to Kansas City, a bigger city, in Missouri, and lived there about the same amount, another eight years or so. And then I moved back to Indiana. My father was actually a coach in high schools. And we moved back to Indiana, in a really small town, after I'd lived in a city for a while.

• 9:17John Hopkins?

  Tammy, her parents, and her older brother eventually settled in the small town of Mentone, a scattering of houses grouped around the intersection of two state highways. Surrounded by nothing but acres of flat cornfields, there isn't much to put Mentone on the map, except that is, for one, boast-worthy distinction.

• 9:36Speaker 03

  The egg capital of the world. There you go. That's something. They had a big egg in the middle of the city. The egg capital.

• 9:44John Hopkins?

  Its proud poultry history aside, Mentone didn't have much to offer an adventurous, outward-looking young person like Tammy, who had always had a yearning for the big, wide world beyond her small town.

• 9:55Speaker 03

  My father was in the Korean War. He always had a map on the wall my whole life with all these little tags on it of places he'd been. And so since I was young, I always wanted to move and, you know, see the world. So after I graduated high school, I wanted to get the heck out of there. So I was in this really small town. I don't know how many people, maybe a thousand people or something. It was crazy. So from there is when I moved to Florida and started my beach life.

• 10:29John Hopkins?

  Goodbye to the Midwest, hello to the Sunshine State. Tammy found a job as a waitress in Daytona Beach, a coastal resort popular with tourists and college kids on spring break.

• 10:41John Hopkins?

  She made friends among the local community of bar and restaurant staff and spent her free time in true 1980s Florida fashion, partying and going to the beach. And it was fun for a while. But now it's been two years. And like the neon-lit motels that line the Daytona boardwalk, the sheen is beginning to wear off.

• 11:01Speaker 03

  I was going, you know, to the beach every day. You just party at night and all that kind of stuff. And I'd been there a couple of years and I was just getting tired of that. It's like I wanted to do something else. So I was actually planning on moving.

• 11:12John Hopkins?

  In a few weeks' time, Tammy and a friend are moving 400 miles north to Atlanta, where there are more opportunities for young people. It promises to be a shakeup, a much-needed change of scenery. But before she leaves, what's the harm in making the most of her time here? Today's trip might well be the last chance she gets to go out on a boat and soak up a few more drops of Florida sunshine.

• 11:38John Hopkins?

  It's a couple of hours later. Tammy sits on the beach sipping rum and Coke from a plastic cup.

• 11:45John Hopkins?

  Christie, Randy's girlfriend, sits beside her. Christie is 19, a college student from Chicago with long, fair hair and bright, lively eyes. Tammy likes her, though she's different from her usual crowd. The same can be said for Daniel, a handsome, straight-laced young man who declines to partake in the rum and Cokes when offered.

• 12:07Speaker 03

  The kind of friends that I hung out with were bar people, waiters, bartenders. We were always street skating and stuff like that back in the day. Street skating to the pool halls or street skating to the beach. And we had what we called a beach comber, which is a bike with the big tires on it so we could ride on the beach and stuff. But for not having much money, we had a lot of fun. But he was just, you know, Daniel really wasn't involved in any of that.

• 12:33John Hopkins?

  Daniel spends a little while rigging up the boat.

• 12:37John Hopkins?

  Then he calls out to the others, and they make their way down the beach towards the vessel bobbing in the shallows. The boat is a lightweight 17-foot catamaran. It consists of two parallel pontoons connected by a raised mesh trampoline, which provides the main seating area. A crossbeam at the front supports a slender 20-foot mast where two sails, a main and a jib, flutter in the breeze.

• 13:05John Hopkins?

  Tammy and the others climb aboard, the trampoline sagging beneath their weight as they get settled.

• 13:12John Hopkins?

  Tammy loves the ocean, but she doesn't know anything about sailing. The catamaran is small and feels a little frail, but they don't plan on taking it out far beyond the beach. Because of this, they have overlooked certain safety measures.

• 13:27Speaker 03

  There weren't life jackets on there, as far as I know. And, you know, you just don't think about it. It's just a small catamaran. And again, because we weren't going that far out, we just never really talked about it.

• 13:41John Hopkins?

  Daniel guides them out beyond the breakers.

• 13:45John Hopkins?

  It's a beautiful day. The sky is feathered with delicate clouds and a light breeze ruffles the Atlantic. Tammy and the others laugh and joke, trailing their hands in the water. About a mile out, Daniel furls the sails. Tammy stretches out on the trampoline, closes her eyes and relaxes to the gentle, bobbing motion of the boat.

• 14:09John Hopkins?

  They while away a couple of hours like this, lounging, talking and sunning themselves.

• 14:15John Hopkins?

  When, all of a sudden, Tammy notices that the catamaran is no longer sitting evenly on the surface of the water.

• 14:22Speaker 03

  That's when I noticed that the back pontoon was going down. And so he opened up the little screw cap on the hull and he saw that there was water in there.

• 14:33John Hopkins?

  The screw cap covers a six-inch-wide plug hole, which allows access to the hollow interior of the pontoon. Somehow, it has come loose, causing water to leak inside and affect the buoyancy.

• 14:48John Hopkins?

  Still, no cause for panic. Daniel sails them back to the beach, where they pull the boat onto the sand. The issue is with the screw cap's plastic threads. They're not binding properly. A few strips of heavy-duty water-resistant tape should be enough to seal it back up and get their day back on track.

• 15:07Speaker 03

  Back in the day, duct tape fixes everything. So that's what we were told by our parents. And so we got the duct tape and he sealed it back up and we just went back out.

• 15:50Speaker 01

  The Lemonati have spent decades keeping lemon on top and lime in the shadows. Their lemon agenda has infiltrated everything, even our music. That hit song named after the color of lemons? Not a coincidence. Big Lemon has been pulling strings in the industry for years. Think about it. But now 7-Up is fighting back with their new Lime Lemon Soda. Now lime comes first. 7-Up, flip the sip.

• 16:23John Hopkins?

  It's about an hour later, around 3:00 PM. Tammy and the others are back out on the boat, roughly a mile offshore.

• 16:31John Hopkins?

  The makeshift repairs seem to be holding up well, and the mood on the catamaran is relaxed. The issue with the screw cap already feels like a minor hiccup in an otherwise seamless day out.

• 16:42John Hopkins?

  But then the sky darkens.

• 16:45Speaker 03

  I just started seeing some black clouds coming. And they were odd. They were gray clouds. But they were like, almost like a funnel cloud, but sideways. So they were spinning like parallel to the shore.

• 16:57John Hopkins?

  It all happens quite suddenly. That odd cylindrical cloud that Tammy saw forming above the coast now rolls outward, unspooling, until the clear blue sky above the catamaran has turned the color of slate, growling and rumbling and sparking with flashpops of lightning.

• 17:17John Hopkins?

  As the rain starts sheeting down, Daniel tries to manipulate the sails to guide them back to shore. But the eye of the storm must be right on top of them, and there isn't a trace of wind. All they can do is sit and wait.

• 17:30Speaker 03

  So we're just sitting there. And that's when, once again, we saw that the pontoon was going down in the back.

• 17:39John Hopkins?

  Just like before, one of the pontoons has slumped lower in the ocean. Daniel removes the cap and starts trying to bail out the rain and seawater sloshing around inside.

• 17:50John Hopkins?

  Though there is no wind, there are still waves, driven by the tide and by distant swells. And each breaker that rolls over the pontoon dumps more water inside the hull, which continues to sink.

• 18:02Speaker 03

  And we were trying to get the water out as it was coming in. Of course, silly us, the waves were coming over now and water was going in. We were trying to get it out. Tried to put the cap back on. And sure enough, after a bit, it just tipped over.

• 18:17John Hopkins?

  Eventually, enough water leaks into the pontoon that it throws off the boat's equilibrium. The catamaran flips lengthways, the stern dropping below the waves as the prow shoots up vertically.

• 18:31John Hopkins?

  The four people on board are catapulted into the ocean.

• 18:37John Hopkins?

  Tammy surfaces, blinking seawater from her eyes. Once they regain their composure, the foursome start trying to push the boat back into a horizontal position. And after a few attempts, they succeed. The catamaran rights itself, and Tammy and the others scramble back on board, exchanging a few sheepish grins. They wave towards the beach, whistling and shouting, but they can't seem to make themselves heard. Meanwhile, the rain still hammers down and water continues to leak into the pontoon.

• 19:11Speaker 03

  We had talked about getting saved by another boat and we'll be in the newspaper or something because we're out here in a boat that had capsized. And that's when it flipped over the second time.

• 19:21John Hopkins?

  This time, the catamaran tips over sideways, with the mast flat against the sea.

• 19:28Speaker 03

  And that's when we knew we were in trouble because there's no way to pull that boat back up that way. The second time it went over, we just, I think, I mean, I remember we were just all like silent. Because we just jumped in the water and as it's falling over and we just couldn't believe it.

• 19:47John Hopkins?

  Tammy and the others heave themselves up onto the only part of the boat's hull still visible, the second pontoon, a narrow length of slippery fiberglass. They pull their legs up and sit with their arms wrapped around their knees. Tammy scans the turbid, rain-churned water around them.

• 20:08Speaker 03

  All of us had shark in our head. We're always, always thinking about shark when you're out there. The second time, we pretty much all knew that we weren't going to be able to get it back up and we're just going to have to sit and wait.

• 20:19John Hopkins?

  So that's what they do. Eventually, a boat will pass by or someone on the beach will spot them or the coast guard will get a call. But an hour passes, and then another, and still nothing.

• 20:33John Hopkins?

  After a while, Tammy has to pull her legs up a little higher to keep her feet out of the water.

• 20:39John Hopkins?

  The waves are beginning to lap at her toes.

• 20:43John Hopkins?

  Earlier, Daniel reassured everyone that catamarans are designed to stay afloat, even if structural damage has rendered them immobile.

• 20:51Speaker 03

  I remember he had told us that catamarans don't sink. It'll stay buoyant. But as time progressed, we couldn't keep our feet on the pontoon anymore. We were sliding off. So we had to straddle so the pontoon was actually going under.

• 21:12John Hopkins?

  It's 6:00 PM, about a mile off the coast of Volusia County, Florida.

• 21:19John Hopkins?

  Three hours have passed since the catamaran capsized for the second time, and the atmosphere on what's left of the boat is growing tense. As the submerged pontoon steadily fills with water, the other one that they're sitting on is being slowly dragged down with it.

• 21:37John Hopkins?

  Tammy, ever the optimist, does what she can to keep things light.

• 21:42Speaker 03

  We talked and stuff, and I remember in the beginning, I was singing, trying to make a joke of it as usual, and singing "Ride In The Storm Out" and some other water songs, which they didn't appreciate, but I was trying to keep our spirits up.

• 21:55John Hopkins?

  But as night approaches, even Tammy struggles to remain upbeat. The pontoon settles lower in the ocean, making it harder to balance with their knees pulled into their chests. Contending with waves and driving rain, they have to awkwardly straddle the fiberglass boat, their legs dangling in the murky water.

• 22:17John Hopkins?

  Efforts to flag someone down on the shore have failed, and there don't seem to be any other boats out here.

• 22:24John Hopkins?

  Daniel, the only experienced sailor among them, tries to reassure the others that the tidal currents will eventually push them back towards land.

• 22:33John Hopkins?

  Tammy isn't so sure.

• 22:39John Hopkins?

  As dusk settles, twinkling beacons appear along the coast, the lights of the hotels and apartments that line Daytona's seafront.

• 22:48John Hopkins?

  But these lights seem to be getting fainter.

• 22:52John Hopkins?

  Tammy calls over to Daniel, her voice brittle with anxiety.

• 22:56Speaker 03

  I told him that we're going out farther and farther, and he was going, "No, the currents are going this way, so we're going to be going back in." And I was like, "No, we're going farther out."

• 23:09John Hopkins?

  The others are unconvinced, but Tammy is certain. And if they are drifting further out, it means now is the time to act.

• 23:19John Hopkins?

  Tammy was on her high school swim team. It's been years since she competed, but she's confident in the water, and she volunteers to swim the mile or so back to shore.

• 23:28Speaker 03

  I thought I could do it. And so it was Daniel, or Randy, that ended up telling me that I can't go because dusk is when the sharks feed, they go closer to shore, you're going to be swimming in there, and it's going to be feeding time. They were saying, "If we all stay together, stay on here, somebody's got to come at some point."

• 23:48John Hopkins?

  Tammy agrees to stay put. The key here is to remain calm and rational and not do anything drastic.

• 23:56John Hopkins?

  Surely, eventually, they'll be picked up.

• 24:04John Hopkins?

  At some stage, it stops raining and the sky clears. Another few hours pass. And then, from the blackness above.

• 24:15Speaker 03

  The first thing we saw was the plane. That was hours and hours later. That was after it got really dark, that we heard a plane, a small plane, coming. And it had lights, it had a light shining on the water. So then we knew somebody's looking for us.

• 24:31John Hopkins?

  The plane flies a looping figure-eight above the water, the beam of its searchlights scouring the waves. It doesn't come close enough to spot the upturned catamaran, but its very presence is reassuring.

• 24:46John Hopkins?

  Not long after the sighting of the plane, another welcome sound drifts through the darkness. Daniel recognizes it immediately.

• 24:55Speaker 03

  He knew it was like a Coast Guard cutter. He could hear the engine, even though it was miles from us. And so he goes, "They must have sent a boat out for us."

• 25:04John Hopkins?

  That confirms it. It's only a matter of time now before they're found.

• 25:09Speaker 03

  That's when we started all hippie-happy and everything's great. We're going to have a party. We're going to get back to shore, and everybody's going to be flipping out. And so we all said what we wanted. And somebody said strawberry daiquiri is the first thing I'm going to have. And somebody else said a cheeseburger. And then I'm going to get off, and I'm going to kiss the ground when I get there. And just talking happy because we were sure that everything was going to be fine.

• 25:37John Hopkins?

  Tammy listens, hopes soaring as the boat chugs towards them.

• 25:42Speaker 03

  I don't know how long it was, maybe an hour or something before it got to us. And it was so close.

• 25:48John Hopkins?

  Somewhere in the darkness nearby, the boat cuts its engines.

• 25:53John Hopkins?

  Tammy and the others start yelling and whistling, emptying their lungs into the night air. They wait, ears pricked, as the echoes of their voices drift away on the breeze, until...

• 26:07Speaker 03

  We hear the engines start up, and they go off a little bit further north, and nothing happens. So at that, that was the time we kind of realized how small we were, how small we were in the ocean. And even with the moon kind of reflecting and that, we just had that sinking feeling that we weren't going to be found. So we just kind of made that resolution that we're going to probably have to wait this out till day.

• 26:40John Hopkins?

  It's around midnight. Tammy, Daniel, Christie, and Randy sit in single file on the pontoon.

• 26:49John Hopkins?

  A subdued silence has settled over the group.

• 26:54John Hopkins?

  Tammy, dressed only in her bikini, started to shiver violently, making it even more difficult to keep her balance. The sea now laps around their waists as the foundering boat continues its slow, inexorable downward slide.

• 27:10John Hopkins?

  Eventually, it will disappear from underneath them, dropping to the silty sediment of the seabed, leaving those on board to tread water on their own.

• 27:20John Hopkins?

  All they can do is hope they get picked up before that happens.

• 27:26John Hopkins?

  By now, the possibility that they might be drifting further out to sea has become an indisputable fact. All four of them look back towards land, where the bright lights along the coast gradually recede to tiny, flickering embers.

• 27:41Speaker 03

  The lights just kept getting dimmer, and we could tell they weren't turning off. It wasn't that they were turning off, they were just getting dimmer and dimmer. And everyone saw that it looks like we're going further out.

• 27:51John Hopkins?

  Tammy focuses intently on the dim, dwindling lights. But eventually, even that one small source of comfort is extinguished.

• 28:01Speaker 03

  So at some point, the lights completely disappeared. So we knew we were miles, miles out by that time. So we just basically tried to keep each other warm. And then we were looking everywhere. We thought, surely, we're going to see something, a ship, some fishing boat, something, even though we were far out.

• 28:18John Hopkins?

  But as the night goes on, those hopes fade.

• 28:23John Hopkins?

  By now, Tammy and the others are submerged up to their chests. Maybe this is the moment to cut their losses and swim for land. After all, the longer they delay, the greater the distance back to shore.

• 28:36John Hopkins?

  But now, in the pitch dark, it's impossible to tell east from west. They could just as easily be swimming further out to sea. Padling off into the blackness is too terrifying.

• 28:50John Hopkins?

  Whatever they decide to do next, they're going to have to wait until morning.

• 29:01Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by PayPal. Holiday rush? Skip the mall traffic and shop online with PayPal. Shop your favorite online stores like eBay, Fanatics, Walmart, Sephora, Target and TikTok Shop. And choose to pay now or pay later at checkout. Plus, Pay in 4 with no interest and no late fees.

• 29:21Speaker 00

  Shop now with PayPal. Pay in 4 is subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com/payin4. PayPal Incorporated, NMLS 910457.

• 29:31Speaker 01

  The Lemonade has spent decades keeping lemon on top and lime in the shadows. Their lemon agenda has infiltrated everything, even our music. That hit song named after the color of lemons? Not a coincidence. Big Lemon has been pulling strings in the industry for years. Think about it. But now, 7-Up is fighting back with their new Lime Lemon Soda. Now lime comes first. 7-Up. Flip the sip.

• 30:05John Hopkins?

  It's about four hours later.

• 30:08John Hopkins?

  Tammy sits pressed against the trembling body of the person in front. Her teeth chatter and the bare skin of her legs chafes against the plastic of the pontoon.

• 30:18John Hopkins?

  Aware of a slight easing of the darkness, she looks over her shoulder.

• 30:24Speaker 03

  I just turned my head and I saw the horizontal crack of dawn. So I could see it on the horizon, I could see the light. And that's when I was telling them, I said, okay, so that's that way, shore's the other way. And if it gets lighter and we can't see shore, it's going to be harder. So I said, if we can see that and get started in the right direction. I told them I was gonna swim.

• 30:50John Hopkins?

  Soon, the choice will be made for them. The pontoon feels moments away from sinking entirely, with the chilly Atlantic now lapping around their necks. There are some voices of dissent. Not everyone in the group is as strong a swimmer as Tammy, but eventually, they all agree.

• 31:09Speaker 03

  Everybody talked about it. And I think we even said, you know, you can stay on here if you want, but we're all gonna die, so you might as well die trying.

• 31:17John Hopkins?

  In the early hours of the morning, they push their cold, stiffened bodies away from the pontoon and set off paddling in the direction of land.

• 31:27John Hopkins?

  For Tammy, a steely determination takes hold.

• 31:33Speaker 03

  All I have to do is swim. And that was in my mind, not that I was tired, not that I was cold, not that I was thirsty, or how long it would take, nothing. I said, all I have to do is stroke, keep stroking and just swim.

• 31:47John Hopkins?

  At first, they swim close together.

• 31:50John Hopkins?

  But gradually, gaps open up between them.

• 31:54John Hopkins?

  Tammy leads the way. Daniel, who is also a strong swimmer, brings up the rear, just behind Christie and Randy. They continue like this for a while, battling through the waves in a ragged procession.

• 32:07John Hopkins?

  But after an hour or so, it becomes clear that Christie is struggling.

• 32:13John Hopkins?

  Not wanting to get too far ahead of the others, Tammy stops and turns.

• 32:18John Hopkins?

  And that's when their very worst fears are realized.

• 32:23Speaker 03

  I heard Christie screaming, again yelling this time to her boyfriend Randy to come help her. And, you know, she was screaming and that's when I saw just, just like in the movie Jaws, she went straight up in the air, straight back down. And then she went up again. I was close enough to her where I felt like I saw the blood leave her body because she just, she was like a ghost. It was like white, she was white all of a sudden. And then she went face down in the water.

• 32:51John Hopkins?

  Tammy stares horrified.

• 32:55John Hopkins?

  She screams at the boys to stay away from the blood.

• 32:58Speaker 03

  I could see the, you know, the water changed color. So I just kept yelling that, that, you know, don't go, don't go, there's a shark.

• 33:06John Hopkins?

  Ignoring Tammy's frantic appeals, Daniel and Randy swim over to Christie. Tammy can only watch in dismay. Soon, more sharks will surely be attracted to the area.

• 33:19John Hopkins?

  In this most appalling of situations, Tammy's survival instincts take over.

• 33:24Speaker 03

  I just said, I can't, this is not how I'm gonna go. There wasn't a lot of thought, or should I, could I? It's just, yeah, you saw that and you're like, there's no way. I was like, I can't, I can't do anything for them, you know, I have to swim and try and get help. And I just turned around and I just kept swimming.

• 33:46John Hopkins?

  Tammy doesn't look back. The shock of what she's just witnessed is overwhelming, but she plows on through the waves, her body in full survival mode.

• 33:56John Hopkins?

  After a while, she flips around and starts doing backstroke, keeping her gaze fixed resolutely on the blue sky above.

• 34:05Speaker 03

  I didn't see anybody coming behind me. I was like, they're all gonna die, there's, you know, all that blood in the water, I just, crazy. And then it was like right after that, you know, within 10 minutes or so, I don't know, that I felt a bump on my leg.

• 34:20John Hopkins?

  Tammy's blood runs cold.

• 34:24John Hopkins?

  Something big has just brushed up against her leg, a glancing, deliberate bump. She looks down into the murk of the water, heart crashing in her chest.

• 34:35Speaker 03

  So I looked down and it was a shark, but it would come at me like swimming sideways, right beside me. And it just kind of hit me on my thigh, not with his nose or anything, more like his body.

• 34:46John Hopkins?

  Some sharks, great whites for instance, will typically nudge their prey before striking, a behavior known as a bump and bite attack. Tammy watches this dark shape lurking beneath the waves, apparently sizing her up. She turns back to the sky with a shudder. And yet, somehow, rather than panicking, Tammy manages to stay composed.

• 35:12Speaker 03

  But it was like a nanosecond that it was just in my head, it was this most horrible death ever. I'm not gonna die this way, I'm just gonna put myself in mind of a fish, like I belong in the ocean, just keep stroking steady, don't be scared.

• 35:24John Hopkins?

  She focuses on keeping her movements relaxed and fluid. Soon enough, her heart rate slows, her breathing returns to normal. She keeps swimming, and still, the shark bite doesn't come.

• 35:40John Hopkins?

  Minutes pass, then an hour.

• 35:45John Hopkins?

  Tammy's strokes are as consistent as clockwork, sweeping her arms up over her shoulders and gently kicking her feet, smooth and steady.

• 35:56Speaker 03

  It was probably, I don't know, maybe three hours into swim, somewhere around there, where when I turned around, I could see the shoreline. I mean, I was still far, far, but I could finally see it, so I knew, oh my God, you know, I'm going the right way.

• 36:12John Hopkins?

  Tammy is still probably four or five miles from shore, an immense distance to cover after so many hours without food or water. But she doesn't waver.

• 36:23John Hopkins?

  Three hours becomes four, then five, then six. Waves lap insistently against her face, the salt water stinging her eyes. Her sun-scorched skin reddens and cracks open in her blistered lips. She swims through great swarms of jellyfish, their poisonous tentacles leaving raised welts along her face and arms. And still, she plows on, undeterred.

• 36:53John Hopkins?

  Eventually, exhaustion starts to loosen Tammy's grasp on reality.

• 36:59John Hopkins?

  At one stage, the image of a pier materializes in the sky above her, so real looking, it feels like she could spring from the ocean and step right onto it.

• 37:09Speaker 03

  But in my head, I knew, okay, well, if I get on that pier, I know that's not really real. So if I get on that pier, it means I'm probably gonna die. So I just, I said, no, you gotta keep swimming. It was weird, it was like, it was almost like giving up. If I, if I touched the pier or tried to get to the pier, I knew I was gonna drown. I wasn't ready, I still had energy and we just kept swimming some more.

• 38:09Speaker 01

  The Lemonati has spent decades keeping lemon on top and lime in the shadows. Their lemon agenda has infiltrated everything, even our music. That hit song named after the color of lemons? Not a coincidence. Big Lemon has been pulling strings in the industry for years. Think about it. But now, 7-Up is fighting back with their new Lime Lemon Soda. Now lime comes first. 7-Up, flip the sip.

• 38:39John Hopkins?

  It's early afternoon. Nine hours since she started swimming, Tammy is fading. Her body, pushed to its limits, is on the brink. Then, hearing waves crash somewhere behind her, she turns.

• 38:57John Hopkins?

  There, maybe a mile away, partially concealed behind a wall of rolling breakers, is the beach. The very beach they set out from yesterday morning. Incredibly, Tammy has swum due west in a perfectly straight line. And now, she is close enough to make out the raised wooden lifeguard tower.

• 39:19John Hopkins?

  With all the energy she can muster, Tammy starts yelling and whistling. But the lifeguard is out of earshot. She's going to have to swim a little further in.

• 39:31John Hopkins?

  However, when she reaches the place where the waves are breaking offshore, she meets resistance. Her progress halts. She has swum directly into the path of a powerful rip current. She battles against the surge of water flowing against her. She kicks and flails her arms, but she can't overcome the force of the undertow. She is being pushed back out to sea.

• 39:58John Hopkins?

  Yet once again, when presented with a horrifying scenario, Tammy manages to remain pragmatic.

• 40:04Speaker 03

  I remembered to go sideways. If you can cut through sideways in a rip current, it's a lot easier just to go north or whichever way it's going and then you'll eventually cut across. And so that's what I did and rolled over the surf. I remember when I rolled over the surf, that's when he saw me.

• 40:22John Hopkins?

  As Tammy tumbles through the whitewater, she catches sight of the lifeguard, jumping off his chair and running down the beach.

• 40:30John Hopkins?

  When he's close enough, the lifeguard throws a plastic lifebuoy. Tammy reaches out with exhausted arms and grabs it. Moments later, she's staggering onto the beach.

• 40:43John Hopkins?

  The lifeguard starts berating her, demanding to know what she was doing swimming so far out. She could have gotten herself killed.

• 40:51Speaker 03

  I just looked at him and I said, they just probably swam about six, seven, eight miles to shore. I said, there's a capsize catamaran out there and my friend was attacked by a shark while she was out there. And he just looked at me like I was full of BS. And I said, yeah, you gotta get a helicopter or something because there's two other guys out there and I don't know if they're dead or alive.

• 41:11John Hopkins?

  After being checked over at the Coast Guard station, an ambulance arrives to take Tammy to hospital, where she is treated for hypothermia and dehydration.

• 41:20John Hopkins?

  Hours later, while lying in a hospital ward, a police officer comes to speak to her about what happened. Tammy shares her story, then asks if anyone else has been found. The officer tells her that two others were picked up about five miles north from where Tammy reached shore.

• 41:40John Hopkins?

  Both were young men.

• 41:45John Hopkins?

  Once Tammy's fluids have been restored and her internal body temperature has been stabilized, she asks the doctors if she can be discharged.

• 41:53Speaker 03

  They wanted me to stay overnight because I was really dehydrated. But I just said, I don't, I don't feel bad. You know, I just want to go home.

• 42:01John Hopkins?

  Over the course of the next few days, as the press picks up the story, Tammy is interviewed by a slew of reporters. But she assumes they're only interested in the shark attack and not her personal experience.

• 42:13Speaker 03

  I just thought they wanted to know what happened to Christie. And so I didn't even feel like I was part of the accident. And I didn't want sympathy or anything, but it was just, I just took myself out of it. It's like, yeah, it's terrible, you know, and for Christie. But I think because I repeated that story, it didn't traumatize me as much.

• 42:30John Hopkins?

  A kind of dissonance emerges between Tammy's experience in the ocean and the way that the story is being told and perceived.

• 42:39John Hopkins?

  Is she a survivor or a spectator, a victim or a witness? That disconnect is only emphasized further when she goes to visit Randy in hospital and hears the story from his perspective of how he and Daniel swam over to Christie, but ultimately tragically couldn't save her.

• 42:59Speaker 03

  He did get to her and Daniel came also to her. And he said, they tried to grab her, they took her by her, you know, chest, neck and tried to swim. But her leg was gone. The shark had got that. But they did try and swim. They were too far from the boat. And so as they swam, they realized they couldn't do it and had to let her go.

• 43:23John Hopkins?

  A few weeks later, Tammy moves to Atlanta.

• 43:27John Hopkins?

  Arriving in a new city where nobody knows her or her connection to what happened, the whole thing feels even further removed, like a bad dream.

• 43:37John Hopkins?

  Six months later, Tammy is in a bar chatting with a new coworker when all of a sudden a strange sensation comes over her. The bartender, a bright-eyed, fair-haired young woman, looks just like Christie.

• 43:51John Hopkins?

  As Tammy falls silent, her colleague asks if she's okay.

• 43:56Speaker 03

  I was just stunned. So when she looked at me, she said, you look like you saw a ghost. And I, you know, I said, I kind of did. And that's when I, I started, I said, I guess I'll tell you a story now. I don't usually tell people, but, and then I started in on the story. And it wasn't five minutes into it, not even 10 minutes. She knew what the story was and just looked at me and, and said, oh my God, you're that girl. And I said, what girl? And she said, you're that girl in, in the sailboat accident. She said, you're the one that survived.

• 44:29John Hopkins?

  Tammy is still badly shat her side of the story. The press were more interested in other, more lurid aspects. Tammy didn't even tell her parents about what had happened until her brother insisted. Still, she nods and confirms to her coworker that yes, she is that girl.

• 44:47Speaker 03

  And she said, oh my God, oh my God, when this happened, I, I read about it up here and I wrote my mom in Naples. And I said, please send me everything you can. She said, I couldn't believe this girl who was survived and all that. And, uh, yeah, that kind of choked me up. So yeah, we became good friends.

• 45:06John Hopkins?

  Forty-five years on, Tammy is recently retired with two grown-up kids. Looking back on what happened in August of 1981, she recalls how the experience cast things in a new light.

• 45:20John Hopkins?

  And despite the traumas she experienced, she says she still believes in embracing all life has to offer.

• 45:27Speaker 03

  I don't think of it often, but it did solidify at the time, my spiritual aspect of how everything's connected and how this universe is just incredible. When I got out, I actually saw things greener, literally physically. Things looked greener to me. The grass was greener and everything was more vivid for me. And I think I probably took the amazement really, I think that's really what it was like. I loved meeting new people, hearing new stories, cultures, all that kind of stuff. It was just like, wow, everybody's got a story. Doesn't matter what it is and people are interesting. You gotta take chances in life and get out of your comfort zone. And that's why I try and tell people and young people. It's just, you gotta take chances in life.

• 46:21John Hopkins?

  Next time on Real Survival Stories, we meet 62-year-old amateur mountaineer Dan Winker. In June 2022, Dan is part of a small group taking on the Grand Teton in Wyoming, when adverse weather conditions forced Dan and his buddy Jim to abandon plans for the summit and head back down the mountain. Having hiked a fair way, the pair decide to slide down a snowy stretch of slope. As Dan skids towards his friend, he loses control and plunges into a deep glacial ravine carved by a waterfall and known as an ice moat. Plummeting into icy darkness, survival from here will be miraculous. And when Dan comes to and takes in his surroundings, it's clear the fall was just the start.

• 47:05Speaker 04

  It's pitch black. There's a raging waterfall on the right of me. I can feel an ice wall behind me. This sheer rock wall is in front of me. And as I looked up, I could see a small dot, which is in sunlight. And there is no way I'm making it out of here.

• 47:24John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen today without waiting and without ads by joining Noiser Plus.

• 47:33Speaker 00

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• 48:03Speaker 01

  The Lemonati has spent decades keeping lemon on top and lime in the shadows. Their lemon agenda has infiltrated everything, even our music. That hit song named after the color of lemons, not a coincidence. Big Lemon has been pulling strings in the industry for years. Think about it. But now, 7-Up is fighting back with their new Lime Lemon Soda. Now lime comes first. 7-Up, flip the sip.