The sun had set and the waters of the Georgia Strait were icy cold when a desperate call for help came in to the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre on Monday night.

“We’re just two miles from the Porlier Pass and we’re sinking,” Scott Brown told the operator. “There is five children and two adults.”

The family’s 30-foot gillnet fishing vessel was taking on water near Galiano Island, about three kilometres from shore.

With time running out, Brown called out to his children and their mother, Ursula Stephens, to abandon ship.

Stephens started grabbing lifejackets when she thought she heard two of her girls in the cabin. She ran to find them as water rushed inside.

“Everything started floating,” she told CTV News. “Everything inside the cabin floated toward the door and I couldn’t get out.”

Eventually, Brown called and told her all their children had escaped. Stephens dove into the water and tried to clear away an opening in the blocked doorway to join them.

“I started kicking to get everything out of my way,” she said. “All of a sudden it was like a suction and I got out.”

With everyone outside, the family waited in the dark for rescue crews.

“The worst part of all was just holding onto the boat and clinging and hoping they would get there on time,” the couple’s teenage daughter Nagaysha said.

“We were only in the water 20-25 minutes but it felt like forever.”

Brown used a portable radio and the light from his iPhone to help rescuers find them in the dark.

When a Coast Guard hovercraft finally arrived at the scene, Nagaysha was so overwhelmed she found herself laughing and crying at the same time.

The family was in the process of moving to Vancouver Island when the boat sank. All of their possessions were on board, but Stephens said that doesn’t matter – she’s just happy everyone made it out alive.

“I know there is a God, there are angels, and that these children are my life,” she said.

Officials said the family suffered mild to moderate hypothermia, but were otherwise in good health. They were met on the shore by B.C. Ambulance paramedics.

It’s unclear what caused the boat to sink.

With a report from CTV Vancouver’s St. John Alexander and files from The Canadian Press