KELLEYS ISLAND, Ohio (WJW) – Three fishermen were rescued after their boat capsized, leaving them stranded in Lake Erie for hours struggling to survive.

“It’s honestly a miracle,” said Kelleys Island Police Chief James Bartus. “The family came up today and they’re just blessed and happy that this all turned out the way it did.”

The men, all relatives, were fishing Tuesday when a storm blew up on the lake and their 17-foot aluminum boat capsized around 3:30 p.m.

“We had right around five, six, seven foot waves,” said Bartus.

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An 81-year-old man and 78-year-old man clung to the boat, but a 65-year old man floated away.

They had already been in the water for several hours before witnesses spotted them and called for help around 6:30 p.m.

Kelleys Island first responders rushed to the scene while the Erie County Sheriff’s Department notified the U.S. Coast Guard.

USCG Station Marblehead launched a 45-foot response boat.

Around 7 p.m., the two older gentlemen were safely pulled from the water.

“That’s when they told us that there was a third victim,” said Bartus. “He had floated away last and they’d seen he had been floating away from the boat.”

The Coast Guard quickly dispatched a search and rescue helicopter, which located the third man. The water temperature was just 51 degrees when hypothermia can set in between 15 and 30 minutes.

By the time the man was pulled from the water, he had been fighting to survive for five long hours.

The chief explains how he did it.

“He had a seat cushion wrapped around his wrist in a figure eight. So that way if he did not make it, we would see the seat cushion,” he said. “He would wait for a wave to hit and he would yell for help and then the next wave he would spit out the water he’d taken in.”

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All three men were rushed to the hospital, “very hypothermic and in stages of shock.”

The chief said the men are from out-of-town, but they fish off Kelleys Island every year.

Despite their experience, he said no one was wearing a life jacket, making their survival that much more incredible.

“I mean, not having life jackets on, which is, you know, critical when you’re being on Lake Erie,” he said. “I’m thankful we have teams in place with Coast Guard, ODNR, our safety services, the sheriff’s office, everybody that was able to communicate together to rescue these three individuals.”

Both the Coast Guard and the chief said it’s important for people to wear life jackets while on the lake because the outcome could’ve been much different.

He also credits the men for not giving up.

“You have to be a very tough soul to survive Lake Erie to begin with, especially for that amount of time in that water temperature. That’s a blessing for sure.”

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