Man Swims 13 Hours to Shore

After his sailboat capsized, Paul Epp was stranded alone in Lake Erie without a life jacket. Amazingly, he swam for 13 hours to get back to the shore.

By . Posted on June 17 2008

It was a gorgeous day in Welland, Ontario last Saturday, and 47-year-old Paul Epp decided to make the most of it. He decided to take his sailboat out for a spin around Lake Erie for the day. Around dinner time, he called his wife from his cell phone to tell her he’d be home soon.

But while sailing back to shore, the daylight started to fade. Epp isn’t sure what happened, but all he remembers is standing on the boat one minute; the next, “I came up and looked around. There was no boat no more. There were no lights, no nothin,” he told The Canadian Press.

Epp was alone in the water - and he hadn’t thought to bring a life jacket on board. He was miles from shore, and things were looking grim. So he did the only thing he could do: attempt to swim towards the lights in the distance, and hope he made it there.

Though Epp heard helicopters overhead during the night, they couldn’t spot him in the night. So Epp simply kept on swimming - for 13 full hours - until he finally reached the shore of Port Colborne.

Luckily, Epp is now safe at home with his wife and son - and he’ll probably be staying out of the water for some time to come. “That swim sucked,” he said. Sounds like the understatement of the year.

Filed under: General Interest,

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