Fifteen-year-old Troy Driscoll and 17-year-old Josh Long were rescued by fishermen off North Carolina on April 30, 2005, after their small sailboat drifted more than 100 miles from South Carolina. Contemporary accounts most often describe six days at sea, though some say six and a half days or call it a week-long ordeal. Driscoll later recalled eating jellyfish; the first-person account does not support saying that both teens ate them.
How the teens ended up offshore
Driscoll and Long set out from the Sullivan’s Island area of South Carolina on April 24, 2005, reportedly for a fishing outing. Wind and sea conditions carried their small sailboat away from shore. Six days later, fishermen found them off Cape Fear, North Carolina, more than 100 miles from where they had departed. CBS News reported the rescue and their condition; ABC News Australia, carrying an AFP account, also covered the boys’ ordeal.
Why reports say six days, six and a half days, or a week
The title’s “7 days” reflects rounded descriptions of the ordeal, not a consistently reported exact duration. Contemporary coverage most often says six days; some accounts give six and a half days, while others use “week-long” as a broad description. From their departure on April 24 to their rescue on April 30, “nearly a week” is the clearest summary without implying a precise seven-day count.
What they ate—and who ate the jellyfish
In a contemporary interview, Driscoll said he noticed small jelly-like creatures in the water on the third day. He ate one string, then ate more after Long caught additional ones. Driscoll described Long as not eating them beyond one string. The distinction matters: the first-person account establishes Driscoll’s experience and should not be simplified into a claim that both teenagers ate jellyfish.
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“And I ate one string and went to bed and woke up the next morning and I was fine,” Driscoll said in the Fox News interview transcript. That is a recollection of what happened to him, not evidence that eating unidentified sea life is a safe or reliable survival method. An AFP report described the jellyfish as eaten raw, but the interview offers the clearest distinction between the two teens’ accounts.
Thirst and the reported attempts to cope
The teens had no fresh water. Contemporary reports say they gargled salt water and licked rainwater from the deck after a brief drizzle. These are details of what the boys reportedly did, not recommendations: the accounts do not establish that seawater is safe to drink or that these measures reliably prevent dehydration.
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Reports also mentioned sharks near the boat and said the teens swam to cool off. These details appear in contemporary coverage, but the central facts of the ordeal are the drift, lack of fresh water, and eventual rescue.
Rescue off Cape Fear
Fishermen found the teens on Saturday, April 30, off Cape Fear. CBS described them after rescue as sunburned, dehydrated, and exhausted. Long later expressed how bleak the situation felt: “Basically, I thought I would never see my family again,” he told ABC News Australia.
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What the accounts establish
- Driscoll was 15 and Long was 17 during the 2005 incident.
- They left the South Carolina coast on April 24 and were rescued off North Carolina on April 30.
- Reports place them more than 100 miles from their departure point and describe the time at sea as six days, six and a half days, or roughly a week.
- Driscoll’s interview is the source for the specific account of eating jellyfish; it does not justify attributing that to both teens.
- The available contemporary coverage does not establish exact Coast Guard search coordinates or provide a detailed post-rescue medical record.
The Washington Post also framed the rescue as a week-long ordeal, illustrating how rounded duration language coexisted with reports giving six days or six and a half.
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