Three teens are lucky to be alive after they became stranded at sea when their boat broke down.

As Paul Miller headed out onto the water, he thought it was going to be a relaxing fishing trip. He set the boat on cruise control, but when he was 11 miles out, he spotted the unexpected.

"All of a sudden we came up on this boat with three little kids with an SOS white shirt and they were dangling it in the air and we realized they were in trouble," Miller explained.

It was a low-lying, 17-foot Boston Waylor with three teens on board, one as young as 13.

Miller said he first tried to pull them to shore himself, "We stopped and called the Coast Guard because it could've turned ugly."

When rescue crews showed up on scene, they discovered the boat didn't have GPS, didn't have a working radio and they didn't have any cellphone service.

"I was just kind of shell shocked when I saw that, especially after the two boys in Jupiter," said Capt. Jimmy Coyle with Sea Tow.

Coyle showed up, along with the Coast Guard. Turned out, their engine ran out of oil. No fire extinguisher and no flares were on board.

The teens had just one request while getting tugged to shore.

"They did not want us to contact the parents. We had to run the FL numbers to get the owner's information," Coyle said.

"It's a serious thing. You can't just go out there unorganized cause anything could happen," Miller said.

Officials said they want parents to use his as an example for their kids of what not to do. The boat had only two life vests and was also unlicensed.

The Coast Guard is still investigating and hasn't released any names.

From our news partners nbcmiami.com