In August 1981, off the coast of Florida, a routine day on the water turned into a fight for survival.
Tamara Ennis faced a nightmare few could even imagine — and lived to tell the terrifying tale.
Three miles from shore
Forty-four years ago, Tamara Ennis was a 21-year-old hotel restaurant waitress in Daytona Beach, with her whole life ahead of her.
But a terrifying incident would change everything. It all began in August 1981, when Tamara sailed about a mile off the shore of Ormond Beach, Florida, with friends Randy Cohen, Christy Wapniarski, and Daniel Perrin, the owner of the boat.
The four were on a 17-foot catamaran when, as Tamara later told A&E on its YouTube Survivor series, she noticed “dark clouds and lightning closing in on us.”
Believing they were “too late” to get out of danger, the group decided to stay and “wait it out.” At that point, they were three miles from shore — roughly the length of 53 football fields — far enough to be dangerous, but close enough that land was just a distant line on the horizon
Unfortunately, a leak suddenly appeared in one of the catamaran’s pontoons, and the boat flipped over. The four friends, having set out without life jackets, held onto the last intact pontoon, struggling to keep their bodies afloat in the shark-infested water.
”We were just quiet”
Tamara recalled the terrifying moment when the Coast Guard failed to spot them:
“The reality hit us, and we were just quiet. And Christy, who was sitting in front of me, she was very quiet, and I could tell also that she was just making peace, and I had a sense that she knew she was gonna die.”
They drifted alone, waiting for help that didn’t come, until dawn finally broke.
At that point, Tamara decided their best chance was to swim to shore. She reassured 19-year-old Christy Wapniarski, the only member of the group who couldn’t swim, that the salt water would help her float when the going got tough.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Coast Guardsman James Williamson told media: “They should never have left the boat, even if it was leaking.”
Tamara, who was a swimmer on her high school team, led the group into the water.
But just an hour into their swim, tragedy struck when Christy was attacked by a shark.
“I was up in front and it was only probably about an hour into the swim that I looked back and I heard, um, Christy screaming and yelling for Randy to come get her,” Tamara told A&E.
Thought she was drowning
At first, Tamara thought Christy might be drowning, but it soon became clear what had really happened when the shark violently threw her out of the water and dragged her back under.
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