An experienced surfer at Gould’s Inlet managed to reach a young woman in distress before she was swept farther out to sea on Monday evening’s swift outgoing tides.
But her two friends had been pulled so far out that a Glynn County Fire-Rescue crew could not even spot the pair on the Atlantic Ocean’s eastern horizon.
The surfer and the woman were held afloat ¾ mile out on a surfboard and a boogie board. The two members of the water rescue team focused their attentions and rescue boat on finding the other two.
The missing man and the missing woman would have been treading the choppy waters without any assistance, if they were still above water, fire-rescue Capt. Kyle Brown knew.
“Time’s really not on our side at this point, especially with them not having floatation devices,” he said.