A trip to watch The Red Bull Flugtag over the weekend could have been the last boat trip ever for Yara Rinaman and her husband, Luke Rinamen.
Heading home after the event in their 18-foot Cobia, the veteran boaters were run over by a speed boat.
Luke remembers looking up after hearing a crash and watching what he describes as a white-on-blue Sea Ray slide right over their boat. Yara was crumpled on the deck with a severe wound to her head, her back injured. Luke was fighting to control the boat.
"I heard my husband scream that we were sinking," Yara recalled Tuesday.
Luke could not handle the boat and attending Yara's injuries. He also realized that the boaters who had run up their stern had not stopped to render aid even though Luke had locked eyes with three women on board as they passed over the little Cobia.
"My assumption was they would stop. The first rule of the water is to render assistance, giving aid. I could not imagine them not stopping," said Luke with an almost bewildered look.
Now Yara sits in Mercy Hospital with 50 stitches holding her forehead together. She also has cracked vertabrae in her back, but she is alive, luckily, many doctors said.
A young boater with some pals came to the rescue, one jumping into the sinking boat. He held Yara as the boat slowly filled with salt water. Luke stabilized the boat. A Miami-Dade Police boat arrived as did a City of Miami Fire Rescue boat.
In an email to NBC Miami, Ricardo Damas, one of the young boaters who rendered aid to Yara, said he wishes her a speedy recovery.
"What happened Saturday afternoon was a scary event and should be prevented," Damas said.
FWC and Miami-Dade water patrol are still looking for the Sea /Ray. There could have been as many as ten on board, according to Luke.
The couple would like the boat operator to deal with the consequences. With a crowd on board, someone has to have difficulty not coming clean, the couple reasons.
"There has to be somebody on that boat that has to be bothered by what happened and has to be bothered by it," Yara said. "I can't believe they are not coming forward."
