A Family’s Nightmare: Capsized, Trapped, and Fighting to Survive

“We were on a boat in the middle of the ocean, and the boat is sinking.  I really did think we were gonna die.”

Patrick Solomon, his wife, Yolanda, and their two daughters, Samaria and Sa-miya, were visiting family in San Diego. they decided to enjoy a day of boating on the bay and dropped anchor near a sandbar.

“We were laughing, we were talking, listening to, you know, Jamaican music. It was just so much fun. And it was just a beautiful day,” Yolanda recalls.
Later that afternoon, they decided to go further out, however, they had trouble getting the boat started.

“The boat was stuck a little bit, you know, so we had to kind of push the boat to get it from being stuck,” Patrick explains.

As the boat moved into deeper water, they realized something was wrong.

“Something didn't feel right, you know, so he put it in reverse and threw it back in drive and was doing that. And then all of a sudden that's when we saw the water, you know, coming onto the front of the boat,” Patrick recalls.

“It just didn't go back out. And I remember seeing the front of the boat just like sinking a little bit. I just felt it—that was it. We’re gonna die,” Yolanda says.
“And soon as we saw that water rushing onto the boat, it just, it flipped,” Patrick remembers. “I don't know how to swim at all. And my wife and kids don't know how to swim either.”

Patrick was trapped underneath the capsized boat,his head caught in the railing.
“It was just darkness. It was all darkness. I'm sinking, I'm drowning, I'm swallowing all the water it is like, I came outta my body. I was looking at myself, drowning,” Patrick adds. ‘“I can feel myself giving up. That's when I heard the voice tell me, ‘Don't panic.’ It was very calm and subtle. And once I heard that voice, I shot back into myself and then I was able to maneuver, and I felt something it pulled me up. Next thing I know I was on top of the boat.”’

Patrick looked over and saw his oldest daughter, Sa-Miya. As she was clinging to the side of the boat, she felt something grab her leg.

‘“My vision was very blurry. I'm like, ‘What if this is a seal?’ But then I felt her panicking, so I'm just like, “Okay, it's my sister.’”

“I thought I was gonna die,” Samaria adds. “I couldn’t breathe, but like water kept going into my mouth as I tried to breathe.”

“I was trying to pull her up from sinking, 'cause she was kind of kicking a bit, then that's when I started to go under,” Sa-Miya says. “But then I grabbed the boat, like the little ledge part of the boat and I held onto it as I was holding her. God just helped me stay above the water.”

Meanwhile, their mother, Yolanda, was trapped underneath a different section of the boat.

‘“I remember the water just moving so fast, like I'm flipping underneath the water, trying to get my myself together. It was dark. I'm trying to see if I can poke my head up a little bit to get some type of air. But I realized there was no air for me to get. And that meant that I had to hold my breath. I knew that wasn't gonna last long.  I used my fingertips to slide across the boat 'cause if I let go, I might sink down. I just felt suffocated, suffocated, and I said, ‘God, if you show me some type of light, a small glimpse of light, I'm just gonna do all I can to get to the top to that light.’”

At that moment, she saw it.

“It was only like a, a glimpse of it,” Yolanda remembers. “But that was enough for me. I just went straight for it, moving my arms, moving my legs. I just was like, ‘Thank you God! Thank you, God!’”

When she reached the surface, other boaters pulled Yolanda to safety.

“It was the most beautiful thing to witness people that don't even know you coming to our rescue. They helped me get to the other part of our boat. I was able to climb up to our boat. And instantly I started feeling like, ‘Where are my girls?’”  
Then, Yolanda saw Patrick.

“I remember seeing him like bleeding from his forehead down, but he was still okay. And I remember seeing him hunched over, but I didn't know why. When I crawled to him a little bit more, I can see my babies. He was holding them up so that they wouldn't continue to sink down in the water.”

Patrick was relieved. “Everything was good for me, 'cause I saw my family, everybody was safe.”

Soon after, water rescue arrived and got them all to shore. Patrick had some minor cuts and abrasions; everyone else was unhurt. The Solomon family credits God alone with bringing them through.

“I know that God will always have my back,” Sa-Miya declares. “So, I can go through life, I can face adversity with God because I know he has me no matter what.”
“God is real. God is real, you know,” Patrick agrees. “And he's here, he's watching, I mean, every step of the way he's with us.”

“In the midst of anything, He's always there,” Yolanda says. “And sometimes you don't believe it. You know, you can be going through something that's so bad, right? You feel like you're alone, feel like you're stuck. But he proved himself to me that day. He showed me, it's not about you. There's nothing that you can do but lean literally on me. And that's what I did. And he brought us through.”