Hero dad sacrifices himself to save son, 13, after fishing boat capsized

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A 13-year-old boy is the only survivor of a deadly boat trip he went on with his family after hiding inside a water cooler.

The youngster was on board a crab boat with his dad and four others when it capsized off of the coast of California on November 2.

The teenager said that everyone either jumped into the ocean or tried to cling to the boat.

Thanks to his father's quick thinking, Jude was ordered to hide inside of the water cooler. His dad Prasong held on to the cooler from the outside in an attempt to stay afloat, but Jude said his father let go of the cooler in hopes his son would reach shore sooner.

"I remember some of us splitting up in the water and some of us stayed on the boat like holding on," he recalled. "Some of us went different ways. Like me and my dad were on the cooler and some of us were split up."

But "after a little while, he just let go," Jude said, remembering his father's sacrifice.

Earlier, the boat had taken in water then capsized, sending Jude and his family members scrambling to stay afloat.

Recalling the moment when he and the rest of the boat's passengers — including his 17-year-old brother, his uncle Johnny, Johnny's two sons and a family friend — realised that their vessel was quickly filling with water and was going to tip over in rough water, “Jude said: “It was already filled up in one side, and it was already too late before I noticed.

"As soon as we were on our last equipment, we decided to just floor the boat. It was already kind of too late and the water was already forming inside.

“So, we just started flooring it a little bit until the equipment snapped. As soon as we kind of went a little bit faster, the boat just stopped working and we just went overboard with our life jackets on.

"I was crying and yelling out for my dad, so I could hear him say something again.”

The teen said he was also worried about his family.

"What was going through my mind is if I was going to make it, see my family ever again,” he said.

He spent hours drifting through the water in the cooler before reaching the shore.

“I just had to hang on really tightly and let the waves get inside the cooler and push me to the shore,” he shared.

Jude recalled how he didn't know how long the ordeal in the water lasted or where he was.

"I just thought about my family," he said. "I just decided to be smart about it and fall asleep and see what I got and just use it to get out of here. And it was really cold and I was tired, so I just had to sleep on my life jacket and make do, so I could live.”

After he came ashore, the boy hiked up a road and found a campsite where he was able to ask the people to call 911.

His remaining family members are relieved the teen made it home, but are also grieving the loss of their loved ones who perished.

Shanice, Prasong's older sister, told CBS that it was painful to hear about her brother making the decision to try and save his son.

"That broke my heart," she said. "I mean to hear that he probably had to make a choice."

Shanice added that the family hosted a vigil on the shore of Bodega Bay, where the boat set off from more than two weeks ago, to honour the passengers who have died and those who are still missing.

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Jude’s brother, identified by the sheriff's office as 17-year-old Johnny, was found dead after the incident. The missing passengers are presumed dead.

The “vigil is about allowing my brother's life, my cousin's life, my nephew's life to kind of find their way and just be set free and not trapped at wherever they're at," Shanice said.

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