Tamara Ennis survived a harrowing shark attack after a shipwreck off Florida’s coast. She shares her emotional and terrifying experience of losing her friend to a shark and fighting for survival.
In a truly horrifying story of survival, Tamara Ennis, a woman who survived a deadly shipwreck, has opened up about the terrifying moment she watched her friend get eaten by a shark in the waters off Ormond Beach, Florida, in August 1981.
At just 21 years old, Tamara found herself in a nightmare scenario that no one could ever prepare for. She had set sail on a 17-foot catamaran with friends Randy Cohen, Christy Wapniarski, and Daniel Perrin, the boat’s owner. The group had ventured about a mile from shore when dark clouds and lightning began to form ominously above them. Realizing it was too late to leave, the friends decided to wait out the storm, but their plan quickly went wrong.
The boat was soon filled with water, causing it to capsize. Luckily, the group managed to climb onto the hull of the overturned catamaran, staying as far from the water as possible to avoid sharks. However, even after the terrifying storm passed, they remained stranded in the ocean with no way to call for help.
As dawn broke, Tamara took charge and suggested that the best chance for survival was to swim toward safety. She reassured Christy, who couldn’t swim, that the saltwater would keep her afloat. But their swim quickly took a tragic turn.
About an hour into their swim, Tamara heard Christy’s screams. When she turned around, she saw the horrifying sight of her friend being attacked by a shark. In an emotional recount, Tamara explained how she initially thought Christy was drowning, but then realized a shark had grabbed her. Christy was pulled under the water, only to surface briefly before being dragged down again.
Despite her desperate cries for help, Christy was pulled under for the final time, and Tamara knew there was no hope for her. “She went up, and then face down into the water… I knew she was gone,” Tamara recalled, her voice filled with sorrow.
Terrified but determined to survive, Tamara continued swimming. But as if the situation wasn’t bad enough, something bumped into her in the water, and she was horrified to discover it was a shark. In the face of danger, Tamara found strength, thinking, “I’m not going to die like this.”
Five hours into her swim, Tamara’s strength began to wane. She had lost sight of Randy and Daniel, and the rip-tide had pulled her further from shore. But her instinct kicked in when she saw sharks circling in a feeding frenzy. She fought the rip-tide and swam sideways, eventually making it to safety when a lifeguard spotted her.
Tamara was immediately rushed to safety and shared the heartbreaking news with the lifeguard, “I’ve swum about nine miles… one person’s dead, and I don’t know if the others are alive.”
Though she was dehydrated, exposed, and suffering from hypothermia, Tamara made it to the hospital where she received treatment. Randy and Daniel were also rescued, but Christy’s body was never found.
Despite the trauma, Tamara chose to continue her life and work on boats in the Bahamas, though she still won’t go into dark waters. Reflecting on her incredible survival, she shared: “Surviving that gives you a whole new outlook on life… I just had to keep going and thinking about my family, my future, and not giving in to negative thoughts.”
