KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — An educational school trip abroad to Costa Rica went terribly wrong for a group of Tennessee students and teachers. The boat they were on sank in open water on Sunday morning.
A group of students and faculty from Brentwood Academy were on a cultural education trip during the winter break. At around 7 a.m. Sunday, senior students Garrett Crouch and Ethan Oesterle and teachers Chandler Ganick and Jimmy Ker got on a fishing boat.
Not long after, the wind picked up and waves took over the boat, sinking it and stranding the six-man crew in the water.
"The waves just got too big and we tried to head back to shore and it went down from there," said Ethan.
They said the boat capsized about three miles from shore. All of them, plus the boat's captain and another person, were left in the water to swim back.
“It was 'survival-time.' We had to go, so I hopped out immediately," said Garrett.
"The whole way to land, you’re swimming you’re praying you’re hoping to God that you’ll make it out alive and you just keep swimming," said Ethan.
The group said they were separated because the waves were too strong. Garrett was the first to be found by another boat in the water.
"I turned around and right there not 50 yards from me there was a boat and started yelling waving my hands," said Garrett. "Thank God they saw me."
More boats came to find the others. Ganick said he repeated a prayer while waiting in the water for more than two hours.
"It was a constant, 'please calm the winds and please calm the waves,'" Ganick said. "The life jacket and God got us home."
The group said they were back out on another boat the next day with the whole student group from Brentwood Academy before coming home on Tuesday. They said the only injuries were a bad sunburn and the only thing they lost was their cell phones and wallets on the sunken boat.