Florida man’s joy at being reunited with dog who fell overboard

A man has been reunited with his beloved dog after the animal fell off his sailboat during a bad storm – and swam three miles to safety.

Shane Hale and his small dog, Harley, set sail for the Florida Keys on Saturday.

But the pair got caught in a bad storm that night about three miles off Englewood, north of Fort Myers. 

Harley ended up overboard and Hale was devastated, adding ‘the way he went, I never in a million years expected to see my dog again.’

‘I could see his head bobbing behind the boat, the swells, I don’t want to seem like an exaggerating kind of guy but I think they were nearly 10 feet swells,’ he told WFLA.

Harley was wearing a life jacket and attached to the boat with a tether, but apparently slipped out of the jacket after falling in the water.

‘I got to his tether and when I pulled the tether, I realized there wasn’t enough weight on the end of that tether for a dog to be on there, sure enough I pull it out and I just see his life jacket,’ Hale said.

‘I laid there for the rest of the storm and I prayed for Harley and I prayed for me.’

Hale (pictured with Harley after their reunion) was devastated and thought he’d never see his dog again

Hale says his sailing days are now behind him as he can’t go without Harley – and would never make him go on a boat again

Hale posted about the lost dog on social media and learned the next day that Harley had made it to a nearby beach.

He says the dog caught a mild case of pneumonia but was otherwise fine.

But Hale says his sailing days are now behind him as he can’t go without Harley.

‘I would never make my dog get on a boat again,’ he added.