Two teenagers lost at sea for seven days were ‘so hungry’ they ate 100 jellyfish, ‘clung to each other’ for warmth

Need to know

• In 2005, two high school teenagers set out for a day of fishing – and got lost at sea.

• Troy Driscoll, 15 at the time, and his 17-year-old best friend Josh Long were missing for seven days, surviving on jellyfish and rainwater before being rescued.

• People spoke to the boys that same year, when they broke down the painful experience

It was a perfectly normal Sunday morning for 15-year-old Troy Driscoll and his 17-year-old best friend, Josh Long, when the two high school students from North Charleston, SC, took a 15-foot boat out to sea for a day of fishing.

But the weather on April 24, 2005, was anything but normal, and within minutes, the two were swept away by a riptide so far that it would be days before anyone heard from them.

Speaking to PEOPLE in May 2005, Josh recalled, “We wanted to put the boat between the beach and the sandbar, but we didn’t go out for 20 minutes when the riptide took us out.”

“We tried to put the anchor down, but it wouldn’t hold. We just drifted away,” he said. “Hours passed. We tried to shake the people, but no one saw us. The last thing I saw were the towers on the shore that take cargo ships in. In the dark we could see nothing. The next morning, there was no land. We could only pray.”

Josh had left his cell phone in his truck, which was parked at the dock, and they had no radio or emergency equipment. With no way to call home or get help, at 10 p.m., their worried parents called the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard began a sea search using boats, helicopters, airplanes and the assistance of recreational boaters.

Less than three days after the boys got out, there was still no sign of them, and the rescue mission became a recovery operation, with their parents expecting the worst.

Meanwhile, on the boat, the boys were still very much alive – but in desperate need of food, water and emergency attention.

Josh said they were “soaking, clinging to each other, trying to keep warm,” making it impossible to sleep.

“During the day, it got so hot, we took a couple of dips to cool off. But then the sharks came, and we didn’t go in the water anymore,” Troy told PEOPLE.

Josh said the two got so far from shore that the water became crystal clear, looking like “blue Gatorade” that quenches thirst.

“Troy begged me, ‘Please, give me a little drink.’ I said, ‘If you drink this, you’ll die,'” he recalled.

“Then one day it started raining. I opened my mouth to catch the drops, but it wasn’t enough. I started licking the water off the deck,” Josh added.

At one point, the two began suffering from delirium, with Troy explaining that Josh “woke up yelling that we’re at the store and need to buy some Mountain Dew. I was like, ‘Bro, we’re in the middle of the water, and there’s no Mountain Dew.’ “

“I was so hungry I ate a jellyfish and waited all night to see if it would kill me. It didn’t,” Troy added. “They’re slimy, slimy things, but I ate about 100 of them.”

“Troy was so hungry he wanted to bite his finger off,” Josh recalled. “At one point, he said, ‘Please, help me out of here or kill me.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that.’ “

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Their nightmare would end seven days after their departure when — on Saturday, April 30, 2005 — two fishermen spotted the boys seven miles off Cape Fear, drifting 111 miles from where they started.

Seventy-year-old fisherman Ben Degutis told PEOPLE at the time: “At first, I didn’t know what it was. As we got closer, I saw people waving and holy mackerel, two guys in this little boat. One was shouting, ‘Thank God!’ “

After being rescued, the teenagers were taken to the hospital, where it was discovered that Josh had lost 30 pounds. Troy, meanwhile, will be hospitalized for three days with second-degree burns on his face and legs.

Troy’s father told PEOPLE that being reunited with his son was “like he was born again.”

“That happiness was great in my heart,” he said.

When the two were stranded at sea, Josh said they planned to meet for a celebratory ice cream once their recovery was complete.

“While we were there, we had the biggest sundae dream you could ever imagine – the ultimate sundae. Troy and I are going to meet at an ice cream place and have that sundae.”

Read the original article on People