Cutting through the waters and chilly temperatures off Florida’s Gulf coast just after sunrise early Tuesday, a trio of fishermen aboard a small boat experienced the catch of a lifetime: They spotted two 16-year-old friends who had spent the night adrift on a paddleboard waving down their rescuers from atop an oyster bar miles from shore.

The teens, identified by family and friends on social media as Eva Aponte and Avery Bryan, survived 16 hours on the water in temperatures that dipped into the low 40s. Rescuers described them as shivering cold with cuts to their hands and feet from razor-sharp oyster shells but otherwise OK.

The teens were blown off course Monday about 4:30 p.m. near the fishing village of Cedar Key by strong winds while wearing just shorts and sweatshirts with no life jackets.

As darkness fell — and temperatures dropped — so did the odds of survival. A massive search of the Gulf waters by the Coast Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Sheriffs’ Offices and a fleet of volunteer civilian boats continued all night without success.

Capt. Will Pauling of Inglis and his fellow anglers Alex Jefferies of nearby Yankeetown and Russell Coon of Clermont, near Orlando, scrapped their plans early Tuesday for a morning of snook fishing to join the search. They were on the water looking for the teens by 8:30 a.m., just after sunrise, and found them within 30 minutes.

“We tried getting out there as soon as we could, and it paid off,” Pauling said in a phone interview.

Jeffries said he told the teens after their rescue, “You laugh about this one day, just not today.”

The teens and their families didn’t immediately respond to phone messages Tuesday to discuss their ordeal.

Winds pushed the teens off course returning from Atsena Otie Key, an historic and uninhabited island town of abandoned buildings about a half mile from Cedar Key, across a shipping channel. The paddle is popular and usually safe when tides are favorable and winds are mild, generally below 5 mph. Monday’s winds were gusting more than twice as strong.

It wasn’t clear initially where the teens may have drifted. Tides and current could have pushed the teens into the Gulf, further from shore. It turned out, their inflatable paddleboard had acted like a sail and was pushed by winds southeast across Waccasassa Bay toward Mangrove Point, off the coast of Yankeetown, about 15 miles away.

“It was an inflatable object. It’s treated more like a balloon,” said Cap. Gary Bartell Jr. of Crystal River, who spent the night searching for the teens. He picked them up in his airboat from Pauling’s small boat.

A photo shows the rescuers carrying the wayward teens — who were too weak to stand — over their shoulders across an oyster bar toward the airboat. On board, Bartell and his 8-year-old son, Brody, gave the girls snacks and the coats off their backs. Bartell then delivered them to their families and officials at Waccasassa Bay Preserve State Park.

“They had a great spirit for two young ladies that were stranded in the middle of the night, that had drifted 15 miles from their original location, especially in those high winds that we had last night,” Bartell said.

Sue Colson, the Mayor of picturesque Cedar Key, said the Gulf waters can be more dangerous than they look.

“We look so picture card perfect, and just slick and pretty,” Colson said. “You just don’t feel in danger here, which is a great thing to feel by the way.”

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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at [email protected]. You can donate to support our students here.

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Erika Donalds has long been a proponent of school choice and parental empowerment, and she hopes to see Florida move further in that direction now and under its next Governor — a job her husband, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, is well-positioned to take.

“My dream for Florida and actually for the whole nation is that every dollar that is spent on education is parent-directed, and I think we’re the closest state in the country doing that,” she told Florida Politics.

“I think we’re going to get closer every year between now and the next governorship, and hopefully the next Governor will continue that trajectory. But that’s where we need to end up to break the monopoly and give every single parent the ability to make the choice. Even if it’s a public school, even if they’re choosing a private school, they’re making that active decision. And that puts the ownership on the parents as well to decide what’s best for their children and not just the default option.”

Erika Donalds’ comments came Tuesday following an afternoon roundtable with U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the Kendall campus of True North Classical Academy, a charter school network in Miami-Dade County.

Other participants included, among others, Florida International University Interim President and former Lt. Gov. Jeantte Nuñez, Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega, Miami-Dade School Board member Monical Colucci, charter school magnate Fernando Zuleta and former state Rep. Michael Bileca, True North’s CEO.

Donalds, an education entrepreneur and former Collier County School Board member who in January took over as Chair of the Center for Education Opportunity, advised people to “be on the lookout” for guidance from the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) on further empowering parents in the coming days.

“I support anything that puts the power in the hands of parents and even into the community itself,” she said.

McMahon, whom President Donald Trump has tasked with shuttering USDOE, said one of her goals for the agency before closing it is to “leave best practices in place to provide states with the right tools” to take over more education administration duties in its absence.

That includes backing more student vouchers and public, charter, private and alternative school options. McMahon said she and Trump are both “strong proponents” of school choice, but the federal government’s role in expanding it will be limited.

Both Byron and Erika Donalds are outspoken supporters of killing USDOE. The Congressman has cosponsored legislation to abolish the Department and provide funding directly to states for primary and secondary education. Erika Donalds’ X page features multiple posts calling for its dismantling.

In one such post, Donalds displayed an image stating that “7 in 10 American fourth graders are NOT proficient readers.” That assertion tracks with findings from the National Assessment Governing Board and the National Center for Education Statistics, the primary statistical agency of USDOE.

U.S. Rep. Donalds is the presumptive front-runner in the 2026 Republican Primary for Governor. Internal polling released this month shows that after learning Trump has endorsed him, Donalds held a nearly 2 to 1 lead over First Lady Casey DeSantis in a head-to-head race.

Other GOP notables rumored or confirmed to be mulling a gubernatorial bid include Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and former Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward.

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