Florida Couple Rescued After Spending 14 Hours Floating In Ocean

A Florida couple miraculously survived floating 14 hours in the Atlantic Ocean before they were rescued early Saturday morning.

Melissa Morris and Sean McGovern say they swam and floated for 14 hours- without life jackets- after they fell off their Island Hopper boat in Key Largo on Friday, ABC News reported. The boat continued drifting out to sea, leaving them no choice but to float along until the current transported them 75 miles north.

Morris, 52, and McGovern, 50, were eventually rescued when four fishermen spotted them off Hallandale Beach.

At first the fishermen thought the floaters were a pair of birds.

"We headed that way and the closer we get, we realize it was actually a female waving a shirt up in the air," Keith Smith, who also happens to be a firefighter and paramedic, told ABC News.

The men hoisted McGovern and Morris out of the water. Both were exhausted, having endured jelly fish stings, dehydration and minor hypothermia.

"The [woman] could not even walk," Steve Couch, one of the fishermen, told the Sun Sentinel. "Her legs were like sticks. They couldn't even bend."

McGovern told the newspaper that Morris was visiting him from Texas when the two fell off the back of their 30-foot long watercraft at around 6 p.m.

They had no choice but to spend the night floating around using lights from the coastline as a guide, fearing for sharks and other deadly marine life. They first tried treading the water, but got tired and switched to floating on their backs.

The Hopper was found washed ashore in Fort Lauderdale after they were rescued, the Sun Sentinel reported.

Morris said they are just happy to be on land.

"We're fine," she told ABC News. "We'd just like to take care of what we need to take care of so we can go home."

Officials did not say why the two fell off the Hopper.

"I don't know what they were doing when they fell over, but they must've been having a good time," Couch told the newspaper.