This week, powerful storms gave two boaters from the Keys the experience of a lifetime. The boaters drove their boat through a waterspout.
They originally intended to catch some lobster 6 miles north of Marathon, but Aaron Osters and Kevin Johnsen ended up chasing twisters instead.
They captured video of several waterspouts in an 11-minute video Johnsen posted on YouTube.
The dramatic clip shows the two friends and their dog getting a rare, up-close look at the wonders of nature.
“How many people see waterspouts and tornadoes from this perspective?” Johnsen told Bay News 9 via Skype.
Kevin Johnsen is a charter captain in the Keys, where he’s lived for more than two decades. He described what it’s like to drive through a waterspout.
“It's a low-pressure system so your ears pop," he said. "I mentioned in the video that all my hatches had opened straight up in the air. Fortunately nothing got sucked out of the boat. It's a very intense fan, basically."
Johnsen has done it twice before and says he’s mindful of the risks.
“It's up to me, when I'm doing this, to assess the situation whether or not it’s an acceptable risk or not, and in this situation, it was perfect,” Johnsen said.