Two friends from New Jersey – and a dog named Minnie – were lost at sea for days.
No mast. No power. No gas. No food. Barely any water.
But somehow, a crew from an international cargo ship spotted the group and rescued them using a cargo net.
So how did the massive oil tanker heading from Amsterdam to New York stumble upon the battered sailboat lost at sea, carrying the two friends from Cape May, New Jersey, and Minnie the poodle — all of whom were on the brink of death?
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox.> Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
The captain of the ship calls it divine intervention.
"God sent me to save them. God sent our Silver Muna to save them," said Captain Neeraj Chaudhary.
Kevin Hyde, a 65-year-old lifelong sailor, invited 76-year-old friend Joe DiTommasso and his poodle Minnie to join him on a sail trip to Florida aboard his sailboat, the Atrevida II.On Dec. 3, the trio sailed away from the Outer Banks of North Carolina after making a stop there.
Suddenly, the clear blue skies turned into the worst storm of their lives.
"I’ve never heard winds so bad my whole life! Sounded like the devil was out there," said DiTomasso.
Their 50-foot mast came crashing down. Without it, Hyde had no control over his sailboat. Their radios were now inoperable.
"We were just being pushed out to sea farther and farther," said Hyde. "It's like finding a needle in a haystack in this situation, the waves were bigger than my boat."
By the tenth day, there was no food left. Back home, their frantic families called the Coast Guard.
"We didn’t have no more water left, nothing. We were sucking water out of the waterlines," DiTomasso said. "She just kept me alive, all's I asked the Lord was to see my granddaughter."
Finally on Tuesday, a crew member from the Silver Muna oil tanker spotted the two weary sailors more than 200 miles off the coast of Delaware.
"We didn’t receive any distress signal nothing, my second officer just noticed something," Captain Chaudhary said.
Hyde said the vessel was "probably the last ship that would have been able to find" the two men and the dog.
While spotting them may have been a stroke of luck, getting Hyde and DiTomasso on board was far from easy. It took three hours to get them aboard the tanker, with cellphone video showing the crew use a cargo net to rescue the trio from the sailboat.
"I was literally crying. I was thanking God – thank God they are safe. Mr. Joe has cried 10 times on ship," said Chaudhary.
The ship captain from India may not be Santa Claus – but for two families, Chaudhary has given them the best gift of all: the return of a loved one.
"It is our duty, it is our duty what we have done," he said.
The two men were evaluated and were said to be physically OK, as was Minnie, and were looking forward to recuperating with their families over the holidays.
