'It Had To Be A Miracle': FL Diver Lost At Sea Rescued By Family

KEY WEST, FL — A Florida diver who was swept out to sea last week after a strong current pulled him away from the Key West coast was rescued hours later by his family, a moment that was captured on video and has since been viewed by millions.

Dylan Gartenmayer was drift diving at the Western Sambo Reef near Key West when the Gulf Stream pulled him so far from his boat that his two friends never saw him resurface, according to a video Gartenmayer posted to Instagram.

"The current ended up taking me faster and faster from them, and it got to the point where the boat just disappeared," Gartenmayer said. "At that point, I realized things were starting to get serious."

Gartenmayer dropped the weights from his belt to help him swim. It didn't take long before he was cold and shivering, but luckily, he found a piece of bamboo to help him stay afloat, he said.

That's when Gartenmayer decided to swim for it.

"I knew the further and further I got out, the less of a chance I had to be found," Gartenmayer said in his video.

It was more than a mile swim back to Western Sambo Reef. Visibility was less than 10 feet, and Gartenmayer couldn't see much around him. When he reached the reef, he cut and tied together three mooring balls to make a raft.

By that time, the sun was starting to set.

"I was watching the sun drop pretty quickly," Gartenmayer said, noting a small plane flew overhead twice but didn't see him.

He added, "Shortly after that, the sun sank below the horizon. As I saw the sun disappear, I knew things were getting more dire at that time."

As the sunlight faded, Gartenmayer noticed the Coast Guard searching for him near where he disappeared from view.

"They would've came and found me eventually, but by some miracle, my parents and everyone else on board my grandfather's boat had ended up driving and basically landed right on top of me," Gartenmayer said.

Gartenmayer's cousin, Priscilla Gartenmayer, told CNN that his friends had called the U.S. Coast Guard and searched for him for hours but were forced to return to shore because their boats had no lights.

Gartenmayer was reported missing at 4:19 p.m., Coast Guard spokesperson Eric Rodriguez told USA Today. He was rescued 7 miles southeast of Key West two hours later.

Before rescuing him, Gartenmayer's friends and family worked frantically to find him.

"It was the worst call I ever got in my life," Gartenmayer's mother, Tabitha Gartenmayer, told NBC Today. "I worry every time he goes out because he pushes the limit sometimes. Sometimes he night dives and goes down 100 feet. So just that scares you… it literally, it took the whole family to come together within seconds."

The family got in a boat and raced to the coordinates where Dylan was last seen, Priscilla told CNN. The light was fading, and they didn't have much time.

"Everything was silent on the boat until the flashlight hit him and he put his hands up – we finally knew he was OK," Priscilla told CNN.

@kwmermaidp Replying to @yari43770 ♬ original sound - Priscilla Gartenmayer

Video shared on Priscilla's TikTok shows Gartenmayer's family celebrating as they pull him onto their boat. Several people hug Gartenmayer. Cries of "Oh Dylan! Oh my God, you made it! Oh God, Dylan" can be heard.

"It definitely had to be a miracle," his mother Tabitha told NBC today. "It had to be God protecting him the whole time, our angels above because for us to land right on him, you could see it's a needle in a haystack out there."