What began as a pleasure boat trip for a girl and her family back in 1986 ended in tragedy. Only the girl survived. Now, thirty-five years later she's reunited with her rescuers.
San Pedro is a funky town located at the southern tip of Los Angeles. It's where the port is located. Here, the container ships and the cruise liners dock. There's also a marina where people dock their boats. Thirty-five years ago, two San Pedro fishermen, Paul Strasser and Mark Pisano, sailed off from this very marina early one May morning. Thank goodness they did because they would end up saving a little girl's life.
Imagine drifting alone for hours in the vast, cold Pacific Ocean miles off of Catalina Island. Now imagine doing that at nine years old. Now imagine doing that after watching your family die before your very eyes. This happened to Desiree Rodriguez.
She was saved by Strasser and Pisano after being lost at sea all night and for most of the following day when her family's boat capsized and sunk. One by one her family died in the water. Only she survived.
Desiree thought she was done for when suddenly she was grabbed by Pisano. Strasser had spotted her mother floating in the water from a half-mile away. These two fishermen saved her life. But then Desiree didn't see them again. They always wondered what happened to her.
Then recently, on March 11, 2021, Desiree was reunited with these same fishermen at the exact same marina in San Pedro where she stepped back on land after being lost at sea for hours.
Desire is an adult now, married with her own children. It's a bittersweet ending for a girl who lost her whole family at sea. However, she was finally able to thank the men who saved her.
A pleasure trip to fish at Catalina.
Desiree’s father loved to fish. He owned a boat and so one sunny May day in 1986, he drove the family from Riverside, where they lived, to the coast and the family set off to Catalina to spend the entire day, fishing. Along on the trip were Desiree’s pregnant mother, her five-year-old sister, and her aunt and uncle.
Catalina Island. Photo by Tony Mucci.
The family spent a fun morning and afternoon together off the coast of Catalina. At the end of the day, the family began to sail back to Los Angeles.
The fog rolled in and dusk turned to night. Desiree fell asleep.
She was awakened by her father’s yells that the boat was sinking. It's unclear exactly what actually happened to make the boat sink. Maybe a large wave created by another ship capsized the boat. No one knows.
Desiree remembers her father telling everyone to jump into the sea. Each member of her family made a leap for it. The ocean was cold and it was dark.
Within minutes, the hull had filled with water. The boat sunk, leaving only the bow's tip above the swells.
Floating only with the help of their life vests, Desiree's entire family was now stranded in the ice-cold Pacific in the pitch dark of night. Desiree's father told everyone he was going for help and swam off. The family waited for hours. Desiree's father never returned.
Her mother was pregnant and not managing well in the freezing water. Before long, she was foaming at the mouth. She died right before Desiree's eyes.
Her mother's body started to slip under the water but Desiree tied her in the ropes to the boat to keep her from floating away.
Her five-year-old sister died next. Then only Desiree, her aunt and uncle were left. They had no idea when or if they'd be rescued, but they clung hold to hope.
Desiree and her aunt took turns fantasizing about what they would do once they were rescued, the hotel they’d stay in, the room service they’d order, and warm blankets they’d wrap themselves up in.
By morning, though, they were still floating in the water, far from land.
They continued to wait to be rescued but no one came. Desiree's uncle began to panic. He swam off even though her aunt told him to come back.
Desiree tried to swim after him. He slipped under the water and drowned.
Now it was just Desiree and her aunt alone.
Then Desiree's aunt died, too.
Desiree thought she was done for.
Luckily, help was on the way.
Meanwhile, a commercial fishing boat that was typically docked in San Pedro was sailing out near Catalina. At the end of a long day of catching fish, the boat was on its way back to the mainland.
Strasser was at the helm. Seven miles into the journey, he noticed something unusual in the water.
Photo by Vincent Camacho.
He tried to get a better look at whatever this thing was through his binoculars. What was it? Some kind of debris, maybe part of a boat—a boat bumper? It floated on top of the water. He steered the boat closer to see better. That's when he saw exactly what this "debris" was.
A dead body.
It was Desiree’s mother.
Strasser radioed the Coast Guard, then heard other passengers yelling. They'd spotted two other bodies in the water.
One was Desiree’s aunt, floating facedown. The other was Desiree.
She still had her orange life jacket on. The other fisherman, Pisano, dove into the water and swam to her.
Desiree was barely alive.
The crew pulled her out of the water and rushed her back to San Pedro. She spent the night in the hospital.
She walked out of the hospital the next day after being treated for exhaustion and hypothermia. With both her parents dead, Desiree was adopted by another aunt and uncle. She never lost hope that someday her father would be found.
He never was.
She went on with her life, always trying to be good, trying to be the person her parents would have wanted her to be.
She never forgot about the fishermen though, even if she never saw them again.
Until now.
Reunion at 22cd Street Landing in San Pedro.
Photo by Bryan Alejandre.
Desiree was recently reunited with Strasser and Pisano — thirty-five years later. The reunion took place at 22cd Street Landing in San Pedro, not far from where I live.
I know this place as I go there sometimes. There’s a great seafood restaurant and you can walk around the marina, checking out the yachts. I’ve also caught a whale-watching boat from the landing.
Now that Desiree has reconnected with the men who rescued her, she'll never lose touch with them again.