Men drift out to sea on small raft and inner tube

Two men — one floating on a pink polka-dot inner tube and the other on an inflatable pool raft — ended up about two miles out to sea off Laguna Beach, where a Harbor Patrol crew rescued them, according to authorities.

The pair had been out on the ocean for about six hours when Orange County sheriff ’s deputies plucked them from the water on Tuesday, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi said.

One of the men didn’t know how to swim. “He was scared because he thought he was going to die,” Concialdi said.

The men, who are cousins in their 30s from El Monte, were visiting a friend in Newport and decided to relax on the water in Corona del Mar, according to the Fire Authority. They floated out on the inner tube and raft.

“This was not the best decision these two gentlemen could make,” Concialdi said. “They could’ve easily drowned out in the ocean.”

When the cousins realized they were too far from shore, they tried to paddle back but couldn’t make it. For hours, they tried to flag down passing boats, but no one could hear or see them, according to Concialdi.

“They were out in rough seas with some paddles, and the current was just taking them farther and farther out to sea,” Concialdi said.

Someone noticed them in the late afternoon, and rescuers on a Sheriff ’s Department Harbor Patrol boat pulled them aboard.

One of the men was taken to a hospital in Mission Viejo in moderate condition for treatment of low blood pressure and hypothermia, according to the Fire Authority. The other man declined to be taken to the hospital