Finger-Pointing Starts in S.C. Sea Rescue

Rescuers were dispatched. All they found was a parked car with a cell phone inside. But, finally, they had a starting point for the wayward trip.

While the search unfolded, Driscoll and Long were feeling almost invisible. Time and again, they tried to signal passing fishing boats. One even came within 150 yards, Driscoll said, but no one saw them.

They looked to the skies, praying for rain, but none came until one evening when they felt drops. For two minutes, Driscoll said, rain came down. But that was it. Still, they leaned onto the bow of their little boat and licked the few drops that accumulated. During the day, Driscoll said, they scooped jellyfish from the water and ate them out of sheer desperation.

By then, the Coast Guard's search mission had become a recovery mission -- a delicate way of saying crews were looking for bodies, rather than live teenagers. Family members gathered at a Charleston church to pray.

All the while, Driscoll was dreaming of banana splits. Long fantasized about a Mountain Dew. But mostly, they prayed.

"I said, 'Lord, if it's your will, take me now -- I can't stand this anymore,' " Driscoll remembers saying on Friday night, five days into his ordeal.

Not long after he asked God to take him, Driscoll was awakened by something that sounded to him like a hurricane. A huge container ship passed within shouting distance, sending a wake that rattled his boat.

In the morning, another boat came into view. This time, it slowed, and the boys were soon on board, guzzling fresh water for the first time in six days. It took only 15 minutes for the fishermen to get them to shore. Not long afterward they were stuffing themselves on macaroni and cheese and mashed potatoes at the hospital. But dessert, brought by one of Driscoll's uncles, was the best part. It was the biggest banana split Driscoll had ever seen.