Anna Maria native rescues five from Sarasota Bay near Longboat's north end

When Taylor Rahn saw a paddle waving in the air over two-foot swells on a cold, windy day on Sarasota Bay, he knew something was wrong.

The 23-year-old Anna Maria fishing guide asked his client if he’d simply been imagining things after a few hours on the water.

He wasn’t.

So Rahn sped toward the twirling oar and saw three life preservers, a capsized canoe and two heads bobbing in the about 60-degree water.

“I was more or less just in shock to see that, because that's something you don’t encounter every day, to say the least,” Rahn said.

Three boys, Keegan Martin, 11, Landon Martin, 5, and Simeon Brubacher, 6, and their dads, Darren Martin, 39 of Elmira, in the Canadian province of Ontario, and Steven Brubacher, 37 of Sarasota, had been stranded in the water for at least an hour when Rahn said he found them Sunday, Jan. 7, off the southern tip of Sister Keys near the north end of Longboat Key.

Their canoe had capsized while on a fishing trip, although neither Brubacher nor Martin said they knew what happened. They said they were sure of one thing, however — the water was cold. 

After calming his clients and asking them for help, Rahn pulled the youngest of the three boys onto his fishing boat. The shivering boy screamed and cried “I can’t move,”  Rahn said.

Rahn said his clients wrapped the boy in towels while he pulled the two others aboard. The two men, who Rahn, a former collegiate baseball catcher and third baseman, said looked to be in “pretty good shape,” had to be helped onto the boat also, both of whom appeared “fatigued and mentally and physically drained.”

Once Rahn and his clients got towels around the men and boys, the Anna Maria native knew he had to call for help. He’d been fishing in these water since he was 3 years old and knew the closest place emergency vehicles could meet them was Cannon’s Marina, about 10 minutes away.

“You need to have EMTs there right away because these guys are in bad shape,” Rahn said he told the dispatcher.

Emergency vehicles were at Cannons Marina when Rahn arrived. Deputy Fire Chief Chris Krajic said first responders removed the victims' wet clothing, dried them, wrapped them in blankets and heat packs and put them in the back of heated ambulances.

The boys were taken to Bayfront Park where three helicopters transported each child individually to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in Sarasota, Krajic said.

Ambulances took the two men to Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, Krajic said. All five patients were being treated for signs of hypothermia, Fire Chief Paul Dezzi said in an email to Town Manager Tom Harmer.

It took Rahn about 25 minutes from when he first saw the paddle waving in the air to get the two men and three boys to safety. Krajic said Longboat Fire-Rescue have not responded to a case like this in “the last couple years.”

Rahn, a full-time student at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, said he’s helped vessels with broken engines before, but never been part of what he described as a life or death situation.

“I would hope to God that someone would do that for me,” Rahn said.