DUVAL CO., FL (WCMH) – A chartered fishing boat turned into a rescue boat when the men on board spotted three people stranded in the water off the Florida coast after their boat sank.

Captain Scott Reynolds says when the fishermen aboard his boat spotted the three men in life vests treading water, it was pure luck.

“All I had to do was make one other decision for the day, you know I could have turned another direction, and it would’ve been game over,” he told WFOX.

The three men were stranded about 15 miles off the coast of Jacksonville. They were left clinging to a cooler and a gas can and treading water for three hours after their 20-foot boat started taking on water and capsized.

“It was upside down by the time I got to it,” Reynolds said. “And they had left it trying to swim to us. They saw us on the previous spot.”

After Reynolds and his crew pulled the men to safety, rescue responders checked the men to make sure everyone was okay. Luckily they were, but the experience clearly left them rattled.

“A little bit of shock obviously,” Reynolds said. “They’d been in the water long enough and been worried enough I’m sure.”