Two boaters rescued on Island

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND - Two men spent what had to be a harrowing 30 minutes clinging to the old causeway after their boat overturned late Saturday before they were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

At about 5 p.m., the men's 14-foot aluminum flat boat tipped over and the occupants struggled to make it to the old causeway at South Padre Island.

"Someone saw them and came to report it to us," said Coast Guard Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class David Perrin, "and then we went out there and got them."

Neither of the men required hospitalization.

"I think they were just shaken up because they couldn't swim and one of them didn't have a life jacket on," Perrin said. "He was stuck in between the pillars of the old causeway."

Strong winds were blamed for the accident.

"We had a few little storms blow through here," Perrin said. "They said they were in the shallows and the wind blew them into deeper water in the bay. The waves came over the front of their boat and swamped them, filled up the boat and flipped them over."

Names of the boaters and their hometowns were not released.

Although there was another life jacket on board the small boat, the boat flipped on top of it and the swimmers had to make do with just one.

Perrin said it's only required that flotation devices be on board and occupants do not have to wear them.

In addition, a parasailer broke loose from his tether Saturday and ran into the old causeway. No one was injured.

Perrin said details about that incident remain sketchy.