Men Thought of Families to Survive in Ocean : Capsized: Two brothers stay afloat in frigid waters signaling for help after their power boat sinks.

A Granada Hills man who was rescued with his brother after their boat sank off the coast of Oxnard said Monday he almost killed himself to end his suffering after more than two hours in frigid water.

Gary DeGraffenreid, 32, said only the thought of his two children kept him from committing suicide after the 19-foot motorboat sank at 7:40 a.m. Saturday--dumping him and his brother, Daryl, 30, into 62-degree water.

“I just thought that when I went under the next swell I would let out my air and kill myself and put myself out of my misery,” said DeGraffenreid, a trouble-shooter with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “But as I went under, I thought about my kids and how I always tell them, ‘Don’t ever give up.’ ”

He was rescued about 20 minutes later--just after 10 a.m.--by a Simi Valley family out for a day’s pleasure cruise aboard the Kazi Okakaru, a 27-foot sailboat.

Daryl DeGraffenreid of Sepulveda, who had set off earlier to swim three miles to Anacapa Island for help, was spotted and rescued by the sailboat 10 minutes after his brother was lifted on board. He had only managed to swim about a quarter of a mile.

Before he was rescued, he said, between 15 and 20 seals kept him company, with one baby seal swimming nearest him. The seals may have served to shield him from sharks that he said circled about 5 feet below.

“I was on my way, half way up to the golden gates,” said Daryl DeGraffenreid, who added that he, too, concentrated on his family to keep his mind off the apparent hopelessness of the situation.

“It was really cold,” said Mary Wilson, 28, a passenger on the Kazi Okakaru. “I can’t believe they stayed alive that long.”

Gary DeGraffenreid suffered from slight hypothermia. Daryl DeGraffenreid suffered from hypothermia and shock. After they were radioed about the situation, a National Park Service ranger patrolling Anacapa Island by boat met the sailboat and administered first aid to the brothers before the Coast Guard transported them back to Oxnard.

Daryl DeGraffenreid, a medical technician, was taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center where he was treated. He was released later that day. His brother required no treatment and was not taken to a hospital.

The brothers had left Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard at 7 a.m. Saturday for what they hoped would be a leisurely fishing trip. It was the first time they had braved the ocean on their own rather than fishing from a chartered boat. They were about nine miles off the coast and three miles from Anacapa Island when the boat’s engine broke down.

By the time the engine stopped, 4-foot waves were crashing into the boat. The brothers said later they realized that the boat was taking on so much water that it would capsize. But Gary DeGraffenreid said he thought it would flip over but stay afloat, advertising their predicament to passing vessels and providing them something to hang onto.

The brothers said they managed to grab flares and flotation cushions and wrap water-ski vests around themselves before the $22,000 boat sank.

They set off two of the three flares as boats passed but were unable to attract attention, they said. One flare was a dud.

After a ninth boat passed, Daryl DeGraffenreid decided he would try to swim to Anacapa Island, about three miles away. Gary stayed where he was because he did not think he could swim that far in the cold.

“I was shivering the whole time,” Gary said. “After about an hour, I couldn’t feel my legs anymore.”

The ski vest and down jacket he was wearing became saturated with water and started to weigh him down, he said. As the flotation cushions soaked up water, he said, they dipped about 3 feet below the surface, forcing him to kneel on them to keep his head above water.

“I knew things were getting pretty bleak,” Gary DeGraffenreid said.

As he struggled for breath, he caught sight of the sailboat and screamed frantically for help. He managed to raise his numb arms above water in a last-ditch effort to be seen.

Sailboat passenger Lonna Starck, 38, saw him as she was looking out a window while in the boat’s galley getting chips and dip.

It took four people to lift Gary’s limp body over the side of the boat, Wilson said. Once aboard, she said, he was swathed in warm blankets and given a cigarette, after one of the women noticed that he had a soaked pack in his pocket.

“I owe them everything,” Gary DeGraffenreid said of his rescuers.

Despite their ordeal, the brothers say they will continue to fish in the Pacific. But Gary said he no longer feels the same kinship to the ocean.

“I always said, ‘If I die, I want to die in the ocean,”’ he said. “I don’t say that anymore.”