Thirteen-year-old Juladi Khammoungkhoune was all alone, drifting in the Pacific Ocean inside a cooler that his father held onto as long as he could before he disappeared into the sea.
Juladi was not a skilled swimmer and had just experienced a terrible capsizing that killed the three adults and two other children he was with in waters off northern California.
In an interview with USA TODAY this week, Juladi − who goes by Jude − said he was freezing cold and terrified after seeing his father for the last time.
“Thinking I was gonna die,” Jude told USA TODAY. “I didn’t know if I was gonna surf up onto the water again because I really kind of don’t know how to swim.”
Jude had gone crabbing on board a 21-foot white Bayliner boat on Nov. 2. He, his father, his uncle, two young cousins and an adult family friend were reported missing around 10:20 p.m. that day after they failed to return to shore in Sonoma County north of San Francisco.
The body of Jude’s 17-year-old cousin, Johnny Phommathep II, washed on shore the next day. The remaining four boaters were lost at sea, and the U.S. Coast Guard ended its 57-hour search around 6:30 p.m. Nov. 3.
The unimaginable happens, only 1 boy lives
Jude said that he would go boating with his father, Prasong − known to his family as Song − every week in the small coastal town of Bodega Bay. He said he has never seen waves as intense as the day of the tragedy.
The details are a bit unclear but Jude remembers water coming into the boat through the windows, and the hoop net snapping. Soon the boat capsized.
Jude said his dad was hanging onto the side of the cooler and decided to get in.
“Most of my cousins are on the boat and then some of them already floated away, I just had to go with my dad, because he knew more, a lot of surviving than I did,” Jude said. “And I just wanted to be with my dad so we could do this together.”
Tragically, Song could not hang onto the cooler long enough. Jude spent hours drifting alone in the dark and cold.
“My dad wasn’t with me and it was getting a lot colder and windier,” he said.
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Jude washed up empty beach in the dark
Hours later, Jude washed up on the shore and waited for sunrise to climb a hill and make his way to a roadway. He flagged down a passerby who took him to a campsite, gave him a fresh set of clothes and a hot chocolate.
He was later taken to a hospital where he reunited with his mother Yathida, 42, sister Marissa, 8, and brother, 7. He did not face any withstanding health issues, according to Shanice Khammoungkhoune, Song’s sister.
Shanice said her nephew is slowly rehabilitating to life without his dad and returned to school on Tuesday. He has become the man of the family, helping his mother and two younger siblings, who don’t fully grasp the tragedy.
“The little ones, they don’t seem to really know too much. They know that their dad is not here, but they don’t understand it the way he does,” she said.
Jude said he’s taking life day by day adding that he’s “building up to be a little bit happier. A little sad but happy sometimes.”
A funeral with no body
A vigil is being held Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Westside Regional Park and Campground in Bodega Bay at 6 p.m. The ceremony will honor Prasong, his lifelong friend Matthew Ong, 42, his cousin Johnny, 41, and Johnny’s two sons: Johnny Jr., 17, and Jake, 14. (The teenagers had previously survived a mass shooting in California in 2017.)
“When you have a body there’s a funeral. You do a memorial and all that. Like we don’t even know where to start,” Shanice said.
Shanice said the family is inviting anyone who has lost a loved one to partake in the ceremony.
A GoFundMe page for Jude’s family had raised more than $61,000 as of Friday afternoon. Shanice said donations will go to supporting Song’s wife and three children in both the short and long term.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: California boy who survived deadly boating accident shares scary tale
