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This episode is brought to you by Honda. When you test drive the all-new Prologue EV, there's a lot that can impress you about it. There's the class-leading passenger space, the clean, thoughtful design, and the intuitive technology. But out of everything, what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda. Visit Honda.com slash EV to see offers. It's 1 a.m. on Sunday, June the 9th, 2019.
In the Coral Sea, nine miles off the coast of Queensland, Australia, a small fishing boat bobs peacefully on the waves. The air is warm and still. The softly rolling water shimmers, reflecting the sparkling night sky above. In the open-air cabin, beneath the vessel's soft plastic canopy, 39-year-old Micah Honan and his seven-year-old son Julian lie snuggled up next to each other in their sleeping bags.
Micah's friend and crewmate, Steven Jaycock, is dozing on top of the cool box housed at the back of the boat. After a long day's fishing, all three are sound asleep. That is, until Micah is rudely awoken by a cold shock. I woke up with my feet wet and because I was on the floor in my sleeping bag, I knew instantly there is something wrong because otherwise why would my feet be wet?
I never ever had water in the boat. Micah sits bolt upright and starts kicking his way out of his wet sleeping bag. Suddenly aware that the boat is filling with water, he yells at Stephen to wake up. Young Julian's eyes open too, bleary and confused, unsure what all the commotion is about. In the dark, Micah scrambles at the boat's controls. He needs to start the pumps and get the motor going. Maybe he can spin the boat around, away from the waves which are now flooding over the back.
He feels the key in the ignition. He turns it. Nothing. Micah's heart skips a beat. The engine must be flooded. How? Why? He has no idea. But he knows what this means. And how little time he's got. The water is already above his knees. I bent down to pick up Julian. In that moment, the boat pitched basically and went down engine first.
The rear of the boat drops suddenly below the water, catapulting Micah and Julian off their feet and slamming them into the boat's cabin. The vessel is sinking, and it's taking father and son with it. Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives.
In this episode, we meet Micah Honan, an experienced seaman whose idyllic father-son fishing trip turns in an instant into a harrowing nightmare. Micah will find himself adrift in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of the night, with his little boy clinging onto him for dear life. I think my heart and my soul spoke to the Lord and just said, "Please get us out of here."
If Julian won't make it, I don't have a reason to live. If Julian goes, then I go with him and go down where we both just love to be, in the middle of the ocean. I'm John Hopkins from NOISA. This is Real Survival Stories. It's just after lunchtime on June the 8th, 2019, a Saturday. In Eastern Australia, the Malula River wends its way to the Pacific Ocean.
Approaching the mouth, pines and palms line the banks, swaying gently in the warm sea breeze. Then the trees give way to the gorgeous sandy beaches along the shore. Winter in Australia is generally mild, but here on tropical Queensland's Sunshine Coast, it's a balmy 25 degrees. In the marina, rows of masts bob up and down. It's the afternoon lull and all is quiet.
Except for one small fishing boat, where the laughter of seven-year-old Julian Honan rings out clearly. As the child bounces between the boat and the jetty, father Micah Honan and his friend Steven finish loading up. Micah's 17-foot craft, Gilly's Hammer, may be small, but it does the job. The controls are housed in the open cabin under a plastic canopy. At the back is a large cooler and the outboard motor. Other than that, there's just enough room for the three of them to fish.
Rods, tackles, sleeping bags, life jackets and various other provisions are stowed away. Mike was looking forward to an adventure with his boy. Julian lives with his mum during the week, so weekends are always special. But this one is particularly so. They're going on an overnight fishing trip. Julian always asked basically in winter, can we do an overnight trip, please? Because he wants to fish alone.
The late afternoon and the very early mornings, this is when the snapper usually bite. And I agree to that because it's always great. Stephen Jaycock often accompanies his friend Micah on fishing trips. And they've stayed out overnight on Gilly's Hammer several times before. In truth, Stephen loves it almost as much as the excitable seven-year-old Julia. He just wishes he could get out more often.
Stephen had a hunting accident years ago where he came off his quad bike and he couldn't go to work anymore. He loves catching fish. He loves to be out on the ocean like he done in his childhood with his father, with his family. Because of his accident, he lost his job.
lost his wife, lost everything. So he just didn't have the funds or the ability. Micah is more than happy to help Stephen out. The two go way back and are always there for each other. Stephen is a very nice person and a good soul. I met Stephen as I was
in the divorce process of Julian's mother. And he was just always there and always a listening ear. I mean, if Stephen can help, he's right there. He would give you his last T-shirt, basically. Micah does one final check of the safety gear before they set off. An emergency box contains flares, an SOS distress beacon and a marker flag.
Almost as an afterthought, he also chucks in a few industrial-sized plastic buckets. He was passing a building site a couple of weeks ago and saw a pile of them next to a sign that said, free. You never know what might come in handy on a boat. As they motor out of the marina, Micah radios the Coast Guard to check in and confirm their destination, the Caloundra Nine Mile Reef, a popular fishing area about 45 minutes away. They slowly round the headland.
They cruise parallel to the busy white sand beaches and rows of seaside homes before heading out into open water. Soon, Jilly's hammer is cutting through the sparkling coral sea. It's a quick and easy trip to their spot over the reef, just 17 kilometers offshore. On arrival, the three fishermen waste no time in casting their lines. With his dark beard and tattoos, Micah is the image of a salty seafarer.
which is hardly a surprise given he spent much of his life on the water. After leaving school in Germany, he joined commercial fishing boats in the North Sea before crossing the Pacific to work on big prawn trawlers. But today, he's simply a proud dad watching little Julian reeling in a catch. This fair-haired boy is the apple of his eye. He's also mad about fishing. Julian took up fishing with rod and reel before he could walk.
We were on a beach one day and I just checked one of the rods because I thought I had a bite and as I looked back I could see that there was a bite on the other rod where Julian was sitting in front of it and I witnessed how he just climbed up to it and just started reeling and
Like father, like son. Today, Julian's hoping to catch snapper, a silvery-pink, sweet-tasting fish. As he casts his line, a grin spreads across his face. He's in his element.
He was absolutely enjoying himself. He, like always, caught the most fish. It was a really, really nice afternoon. We caught plenty of good fish and we really enjoyed ourselves. Yes, everything was just like you want it to be. Everything was just brilliant. Around 6:00 p.m., the sun begins to set.
Tired but happy, the crew of Jilly's Hammer are looking forward to a night under the stars. After a picnic supper, Julian goes to bed, tucked up under the boat's plastic canopy. An hour or two later, Stephen yawns and tells Micah he too needs to sleep. This comes as something of a surprise. He's usually awake all night. On that particular day, for some reason, he felt sleepy.
at 8, 9 p.m. And he said, "Oh, actually, I'm really tired. If you don't mind, just put the anchor down," which we usually never done. Usually we just floating. Steven would fish all night, usually. I mean, I'm really tired because I worked the day before. I didn't thought really anything of it. So this is exactly what I done.
Around 11 o'clock, Micah drops the anchor and lies down next to Julia. They've taken their life jackets off to sleep. The bulky collars make it hard to get comfortable, but there's little risk of falling overboard and the sea is calm. Micah closes his eyes, letting the boat gently rock him to sleep. And for a few hours, he dozes soundly, totally unaware of the disaster unfolding beneath them.
Shortly after 1:00 a.m., he is woken by a creeping cold sensation in his feet. I woke up with my feet wet and because I was on the floor in my sleeping bag, I knew instantly there is something wrong because otherwise why would my feet be wet? I mean, it's a dry boat. I never ever had water in the boat. Micah leaps up, yelling, raising the alarm. He fumbles at the controls. They need to act fast.
I just got up, knew there's something wrong. I tried to wake up Steven. I flicked on the bilge pump. I tried to start the engine because we had already waves coming in from the back. The pump is not designed to cope with full-on flooding, but it might siphon out some water and buy them a few seconds. He tries to get the engine started, but it's unresponsive. Looking back at the stern, he can see why.
It's already half submerged. With the weight of the engine, the gear and the passengers, the rear of the boat is heavier than the front. Whatever the issue is, wherever the water's coming from, it's quickly flowing down towards the back. The boat's nose lifts into the air. Micah knows what all this means. Their fate is already sealed.
So I just grabbed the two-way radio and called the Coast Guard and I gave them our call sign. I told them where we are and I told them that we are sinking. Having made the emergency broadcast, Micah drops the radio, leaving it dangling from the control panel. The Coast Guard's voice still crackles through the receiver, urgently asking questions. Questions they don't have time to answer. The water is now above Micah's waist. He has mere seconds to get off the boat.
All he can think about is his son. Either I pick up the container with all our safety gear or Julian. The only thing I wanted to grab or take was Julian, my son. There was no decision to be made sort of thing. It was just grab Julian and by that time it was too late for everything else.
I was already breathing in salt water. I bent down to pick up Julian. I would say in that moment the boat pitched basically and went down engine first. Suddenly, the deck lurches and the stern is sucked beneath the waves. Stephen cries out as he's thrown overboard. But as the boat plunges downwards, Micah and Julian are hurled into the cabin.
They're caught beneath the soft canopy, trapped. They each take a final, panicked breath of air, filling their lungs before Jilly's hammer drags them underwater. Literally hundreds, if not a thousand needles came down like the heavens were falling. I'm Natalia Petruzzella. From BBC Radio 4, this is Extreme. Musclemen.
When you're muscular, when you're big, you get respect. This is the story of the biggest illegal steroid operation the United States had ever seen and the lengths to which we'll go in pursuit of perfection. Extreme Muscle Men. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Micah Honan and his son Julian are trapped on board their sinking boat, being sucked deeper and deeper below the surface. Micah can't see or breathe.
And clutching his seven-year-old boy in one arm, he can barely swim, but he must. I don't know what kind of speed the boat actually went down. I had to swim down faster than what the boat did.
because i knew i had to go swim basically out of the canopy deeper into the ocean and once i passed the canopy then i could come back to the surface but i don't know exactly what kind of thoughts i had it was just survival mode i would say gripping julian micah swims with all his might but the canopy's metal frame tears at the skin on his back keeping julian in a tight embrace he strains every muscle
Despite being 10 or 15 feet underwater, he does it. He gets them free of the canopy and away from the boat. As Micah kicks back to the surface, he glances back to see his vessel vanishing into the deep. I just looked down and I could see the boat, which still had lights on it. The internal lights were still on, the gun lights and some interior light, which was amazing to see.
That went down and it felt like minutes, which it probably wasn't. It would have been seconds, but it felt like minutes that we rose and the boat went down. Micah and Julian emerge from the water and take deep, hungry lungfuls of air. They call out in the dark for Stephen. He's alive, but in shock, they all are. Just a few minutes ago, they were fast asleep. Now they're treading water in the sea, in the pitch black.
They don't even have their life jackets. It's a nightmare situation for any sailor, let alone a father with his son. Julian hangs on to Micah's front, his arms and legs gripping his dad's neck and waist. Amazingly, the seven-year-old doesn't seem scared at all. He innocently suggests they should swim for shore, which looks closer than it is. He could see the lights of the Sunshine Coast, especially Calandra.
You could see the coastline really clear, but it was about nine miles away, which is 17 kilometers. So it looked close, but I knew we were not able to swim 17 kilometers. Micah treads water as best he can, thinking with despair of the radio now on the seabed. It all happened so fast. Did the Coast Guard register his SOS?
Did they log their final location? Then he remembers something. His spare hand goes to his shorts pocket. His mobile phone is still there. Unbelievably, it is still working. He passes it to Stephen to call for help. The call went through to the police and Stephen explained to them that we are bobbing in the ocean, that we are at Calandra Nine Mile, that is just the particular fishing area.
With the call made, Stephen hangs up. Ten or fifteen minutes later, the phone dies. Before it gave out, the phone showed 1:47 AM. They're 17 kilometers from shore and at least five hours from dawn. Three lost souls, floating in the dark. At least someone knows they're out there. Micah reckons it'll take a rescue boat 45 minutes to reach them, maybe an hour. But without a life vest and after the effort to escape, his legs are already cramping, his arms aching.
His son continues to grip onto him. Just keeping their heads above water is a huge effort. Perhaps the sea takes pity on them, because less than a minute later, two big red plastic buckets suddenly pop up to the surface. Micah can't believe his eyes. The freebies from the building site that he'd slung in the boat on a whim. He knew they'd prove useful for something. Micah and Julian hold onto one bucket, Stephen the other. Then we had secure flotation.
And they were just 15-litre buckets which we just turned over and just trapped air in those. They were my and Julian's lifesaver because I knew I wouldn't be able even to stay afloat for 45 minutes just by myself with Julian in my arms just sweating water. I would not be able to do so. I knew after...
We had the packet. We were quite secure to float for a little bit longer. I was confident that, you know, for those 45 minutes, an hour, we will make it. Not a problem at all. And Julian actually said, oh, everything will be okay. Everything will be fine. Julian was just very confident and just calming us down and said, now everything will be right.
Julian's courage is amazing. It's almost funny that he should be lifting the adults' spirits. But the truth is, there's more to surviving out here than just staying afloat. The sea may not feel cold. Even in winter it's around 21 degrees Celsius. But that's still 16 degrees lower than the body's core temperature. After a few hours, hypothermia will set in. Perhaps even faster for a child. They just have to pray the Coast Guard are on their way.
For the next hour or so, the three castaways bob helplessly on their buckets. Here and there they see lights from distant cargo ships headed to Brisbane. Occasional passenger planes fly high overhead, but nothing that looks like it's coming for them. That is, until about 3 a.m., when Micah spots a speck of blue light in the darkness. It seems to be getting bigger. Soon the sound of an engine carries across the sea. Faint at first, then louder. It's a police boat.
Micah and Stephen shout and wave their arms. The boat moves closer. It gets to within perhaps 400 meters of them, but then it turns away. They just went away from us, basically. We could see after a little while just some yellow or orange lights, which would have been the Coast Guard. And they done basically the same. They came towards us, but then probably about 500, 600 meters, roughly.
they turned to the south-east as well. And there we started to worry a little bit. And I said, "Okay, why are they all going that way?" Because of the wind, we were going a different direction.
than what the Coast Guard and the police were presuming or what they calculated. So Mother Nature put us on a different path than we meant to do. The castaways watch in horror as first the police, then the Coast Guard disappear in the opposite direction. All they can do is cling to their buckets in silence. Time ticks by. They're growing colder now.
Still, seven-year-old Julian stays positive, reassuring his dad it'll all be okay. Micah just smiles and nods. Then, sometime in the middle of the night, it seems like their prayers might be answered. As they continue to drift, they make out more lights in the distance. Soon, looming out of the darkness, comes a colossal mass of steel. It's a container ship, at anchor for the night. Then they see a second one, also anchored nearby.
There was a container ship close by, which we more or less drifted past, but we could see another container ship in the near distance, which looked like we'd gone straight towards it. There's little chance of anyone on board seeing them. Three tiny dots in the ocean in the dead of night. But there could be another way of being rescued. Such container ships often have lines trailing behind them to catch dinner for the crew.
The three floating fishermen are now hoping to be hooked and caught themselves. We were hoping if we were getting close enough to a boat, we may be able to grab one of those hand lines and just pull on that one and just raise some alert. It's a crazy, dangerous plan. But what choice do they have? The wind is picking up and so is the swell. The waves are about a meter high now. Maike with Julian on his front.
claws his way through the water. I was just paddling with one arm. With the other arm, I tried to hold the bucket as well as Julian. There was no way I let Julian go. And it was just very, very exhausting. Stephen's making similarly slow progress. Both men are almost spent. But at last, the vessel's hull looms directly above them, blocking out the sky.
They're so close, they can feel the waves rebounding back off the ship. In fact, they can feel themselves being pushed away, repel. We tried to swim as close as possible to the hull, but the waves coming off the ship brought us further away from the boat. So the more we tried to get close, the more we got thrown back. They're close enough to see Micah's guess was right.
There is a fishing line trailing from the stern of the ship. They can see it clearly, glinting in the moonlight. A lifeline just out of reach. It was just probably about 20, 25 meters just out of reach, which was very, very devastating. And after that there were no more ships close by. The container ship drifts away, their crew oblivious to the souls bobbing in its wake.
I couldn't feel my feet anymore. I couldn't feel anything. Julian still had the hope and said, "No, don't worry, guys. Everything will be fine. We get rescued. The devil come back. Everything will be fine." Julian believed in it, and he made me believe, and he encouraged me to keep going. The long night continues. Dawn can't be far away.
and with it some warmth from the sun. But it could be too late. Julian is suffering badly. He's fallen silent. His hold on his dad's neck is weakening. I could just feel the coldness of the water and the exhaustion and everything was just really sucking the life out of Julian and he just got slower in his responses. Micah knows his son is succumbing to hypothermia. He tries to control a rising panic.
He focuses his energy on staying afloat and making sure Julian keeps spitting the seawater out of his mouth. Time is running out. Still, Julian occasionally manages to whisper words of encouragement to his dad. Julian told me over and over how much he loves me and that I don't have to worry one bit. Everything will be all right. They will come to rescue us.
and, "Dad, I love you, and I'm not gonna leave you." And that comes from a seven-year-old boy to say, "Dad, I am not gonna leave you." I don't know which words to use. Heartwarming and encouraged me just to keep going. The swell is now a meter and a half. Micah turns his back to the waves, trying to shield Julian. They're breaking over his head. Julian...
completely stopped talking and moving and he had his head tilted back basically and had his eyes open and was basically lifeless. He wasn't doing anything else apart from responding to my request to spit out the water. I think my heart and my soul spoke to the Lord and just said, "Make this
And well, please, please get us out of here. At one point they see searchlights, but not remotely near them. At that moment, hopelessness overwhelms Micah. He tells Stephen that if Julian doesn't survive, he doesn't want to survive either. Not without his son. I said to Stephen, if Julian will lose the battle, then I will just let go of the bucket. If Julian won't make it, they have...
I don't have a reason to live. If Julian goes, then I go with him and let go of the bucket and just go down where we both just love to be, in the middle of the ocean. It's the first time either of them has talked about dying out here. It hits Stephen hard. That really scared him and that made him really, really sad. That really impacted him. Stephen doesn't have children and he...
didn't realize how deep the love could go from a father to a son. Micah keeps his face close to Julian's, checking he's still breathing. The wind is now 20 knots and increasing. The waves are nearly two meters high. Just as all seems lost, the sky grows fractionally lighter. The sun is finally coming up. That makes it about 6 a.m. They've been in the water for over four hours, but there's still no sign of rescue.
They do see a helicopter circling a patch of ocean, but it's some way away. They also see more anchored cargo ships, but they're all at least a mile off, maybe further. Another hour slips by, and then out of nowhere, one of the ships lets out a loud blast of its horn. It reverberates across the water. We floated again in the distance past another cargo ship.
All of a sudden, that particular ship started beeping the horn frequently, over and over again, sending out a distress signal. The ship is an oil tanker called the North Star, and despite the distance, remarkably, someone on board has spotted the three castaways. It keeps blasting its horn to let them know they've been found.
Within just a few minutes, a Coast Guard helicopter is above them, the same chopper they saw circling some way away. A face leans out of the door, then disappears. Then another figure emerges. Seconds later, the rescue diver is swinging down towards Micah in a wire basket, reaching out a hand like an angel from heaven. He wanted to grab me. I just raised my arms and just pressed Julian on him.
and said, "Now don't worry about me. Rescue my son. Please just take my son, bring him into safety, bring him to the hospital." He looked at me and Julian was lifeless. And he said that he believes I'm more important
I can just presume that Julian looked lifeless and that he just wanted to rescue somebody he's able to rescue. I said no and I basically just pressed Julian on him and pushed myself off so he couldn't grab me anymore.
So he took Julian and put himself with Julian into the basket and got winched up towards the helicopter. It's the only time in almost six hours at sea that Micah has let go of his son. As he watches Julian vanish up into the sky, his job is done. Exhaustion takes over as he sinks back into the water. He's only dimly aware of the sound of an engine, the strong hands gripping his arms, and the vague sensation of being lifted.
By the time Micah is pulled out of the water and onto a police boat, he's blacked out. Back on land, the three shipwrecked survivors are rushed to hospital. Julian by helicopter, Micah and Stephen by boat, then ambulance. I woke up, I had heaps of police jackets on me just to preserve some kind of warmth basically, which I'm very, very thankful for.
because Steven and myself suffered a very severe case of hypothermia. I just instantly asked where Julian is and I got told that he's already in hospital and I should not worry. At the hospital, Micah again asks to see his son. It's now that they tell him the full truth. Something terrible happened when Julian was winched up to the helicopter.
I got told that through the wind chill of the blades of the helicopter, Julian's heart stopped beating. And he was, as he arrived at the door of the helicopter, Julian was dead. He was clinically dead. But mercifully, the medics on the helicopter who gave him CPR managed to get a pulse back.
And Julian has now been transferred to the Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane, 100 kilometres from where Mike is being treated. His son's condition is still very serious. I got told that he's stable, that he's in a coma. But I got told or I got prepared if Julian ever will wake up out of his induced coma, he will have to learn how to eat, speak,
walk or go to the loo. And that was very, very hard to take in, as you can imagine. The doctors try to provide context. They explain that the odds of all three of them coming out of the water alive was less than 5%. For a child to last as long as Julian did is incredible. To come through unscathed, that's almost impossible. But Micah refuses to give up hope. It wasn't like a disbelief what the doctors told me.
But I didn't really took it in what they told me because it was just like I knew that that's not going to happen or I didn't want it to be true. I reckon I just didn't took it in and it wasn't reality for me. Not because I'm ignorant, just because that wasn't the truth for me. I just...
really had the hope that he will get out of there and that my little soldier, my little fisherman will get out of there and new, greater things will wait for him. Micah has to wait another 24 hours to be discharged. When he's released, he rushes straight to Julian's bedside. He finds his son motionless, lying under white hospital sheets, covered in a web of wires and tubes. Once again, there's nothing Micah can do but hold onto his son,
All of a sudden, Julian moved. And everybody was very excited because nobody was expecting that. And he opened his eyes and just looked at me. He was just moving his hands and trying to get the things out of his nose, out of his mouth. And he just said, what I'm doing here? And I just looked at him, Julian, our boat sunk. And he looked at me and said, yes, Dad, I know.
But what I'm doing here? He said, Julian, you're not meant to talk. So why? So they told me you won't be able to. And he just said, yeah, but I am. And that, I need to have a peace. Doctors come running. They can't believe what they're seeing. The nurse tells Julian to lie back down. But as far as Julian is concerned, he's good to go. He said, no, I don't want to lie down. I just want to go fishing. Well, people looked at each other and said,
Is he nuts, basically? The boat just sank. He is in hospital, in ICU, and all he can think of is he wants to go back fishing. Julian won't be going fishing just yet. As he recovers in hospital, he has to make do with the toy rod that Micah buys him. Naturally, he pretends to fish from his hospital bed. The suggestion is that Julian will need to stay in for months, but he proves everyone wrong again. After just a week, he's well enough to go home.
A doctor said it's an absolute miracle. I mean, there was very slim chance that he will survive, but basically no chance that he will be woke, talk. I couldn't fathom my luck. I was very happy and I felt really, really blessed. Julian is later presented with a Pride of Australia Award for bravery. Incredibly, he seems to have suffered no real physical or psychological after effects from his ordeal.
Eventually, as more information emerges about the accident, Micah begins to understand the strange twists of fate that transpired that night. Police divers are dispatched to investigate the wreck of Jilly's hammer. They discover the cause of the sinking: a 10-centimeter hole in the hull. It seems that, over time, an invisible weakness had developed at the point where the boat would be hitched to its trailer.
The hull chose that moment to finally disintegrate, at sea, in the dead of night, when they were all asleep. When Micah made the mayday call, a full-scale rescue response was launched, but the unpredictable currents had conspired to drag them away from the search area. Though, as it turns out, Micah, Julian, and Steven had some good fortune as well. Apparently, the fact they didn't have their life jackets on turned out to be in their favor.
If they had, they probably would never have escaped the sinking fishing boat. The commander of the Coast Guard sat me down and explained to me, if you or Julian, one of you, would have worn life jackets, you both would be dead because you would not manage to
to swim towards the bottom of the ocean and then came back up again with life jackets on because the flotation would have been way more than what you would be able to swim down in that kind of speed. If Julian or yourself would have worn a life jacket, neither of you will be alive today.
Then there's the fact that those two plastic buckets bobbed back up to the surface, that an oil tanker somehow spotted them when no other ship had, that the coast guard helicopter was still nearby when they did, and the fact that they all survived hypothermia after so long in the water. Since then I do believe in miracles. It's encouraged me just to live life at the fullest.
I just want to do what fills up my heart, what enriches my heart, enriches my soul. Micah still encourages Julian's passion for fishing, although they stick to day trips now. Julian asked me again just to go out in winter, just do overnight trips. I really struggle with that one. I really, really struggle with anxieties.
Micah still reflects on that night in the water, holding on to his son for hour after hour. In a way, they saved each other. He could foresee that everything will be all right. I don't know if it's just him being a child or he just knew. I just believed Julian. I just believed his innocence. He told me, told us everything.
From the very, very beginning, everything will be all right. Don't worry, we will get rescued. Does he call it faith? I'm unsure. I just believed my son. In the next episode, we meet David and Charlie Finlayson. In the summer of 2015, they're on a rock climbing adventure in the mountains of Idaho. It's an opportunity for father and son to spend some quality time together.
Little do they know how far that bond will be tested. I don't really want to be on my own. I don't want to leave my father, who has up to this point been such a source of protection and guidance for me. I had my 13-year-old with me and I needed to get him out. I confess I didn't think I was going to make it out. I thought that I was going to bleed out before we could get me out. That's next time on Real Survival Stories.
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