Scott Valente and Doug Harmon were never ones to back down from a challenge. As 17-year-olds, they signed up for a sailboat race at Old Orchard Beach. The race was canceled due to excessive winds, but Harmon always said there was never too much wind for sailing.

“Nobody could believe that these two crazy kids were out there,” Valente said.

On Memorial Day, Harmon and Valente were out on the water again, facing a challenge that, this time, they didn’t see coming. Harmon and a friend from Houlton, Kevin Grant, died from hypothermia after the 17-foot boat carrying them capsized in the cold waters of Chamberlain Lake, in northern Piscataquis County.

The only survivor, the 43-year-old Valente nearly froze as he struggled to save himself and Harmon, who had been a close friend since the eighth grade. Harmon, a 44-year-old Scarborough resident, had three children, the oldest of which was 14. The 40-year-old Grant left behind a wife, two daughters and a stepson.

“Why I lasted longer, I couldn’t tell you,” Valente said in an interview on Monday.

As Valente recovered at his home in Raymond this week, he recounted the accident that claimed the life of a good friend and devoted father.

Valente and Harmon met in eighth grade when Harmon moved to Windham from Farmington. Initially, Harmon posed a threat to Valente. Though the new kid in school was much smaller than Valente, he out-wrestled him in gym class.

“He flattened Scott twice,” classmate Bill Webster remembered. Valente “came back and said, ‘Billy you gotta get this kid.'”

Although Webster was prepared to take Harmon on, before they got a chance to fight, they realized that they had a lot of mutual friends in Farmington.

“Instead of fighting, we sat down and talked,” Webster said. From then on, Valente, Webster, Harmon and classmate Bob Brown, who all lived within a half mile of each other, formed an inseparable foursome.

“I was the best man at his first wedding,” Webster said. “I would have liked to have been there fishing with him.”

It was the fifth annual week-long fishing trip Valente and Harmon had planned together. Twice, Harmon had backed out to spend time with his children, Jared, 14; Timothy, 12, and Ashley, 8.

“He was the best father I know, including myself and my own father,” Valente said. “He devoted every minute he had with the kids to them.”

Last year, Harmon backed out of the trip because he had promised to take his kids to Florida, but ran into financial trouble and couldn’t bring them. He could have afforded the trip to northern Maine, but refused to take his own vacation if he couldn’t bring his kids on the one he’d promised.

“That’s the kind of guy he was,” Valente said.

This year, however, Harmon was ready. Valente said he had started talking about the trip in February and started packing for it in March. On Sunday, May 27, Valente met up with Harmon at his home on Broadturn Road before they left. On the drive up, they talked about how they wanted to do more fishing on the lake this year and made plans for cooking contests that had become a camping tradition.

That night they stayed at Valente’s camp on Schoodic Lake in Milo, where Grant came to meet them. Harmon, who had met Grant through Valente, hadn’t known him long, but the two men had already formed a close bond after spending time together at a fishing derby in February.

“They were just like best friends, like they’d known each other forever,” said Valente.

At Valente’s camp, the three men enjoyed a steak dinner and talked about their plan to wake up early the next morning. After getting up and stopping for coffee, they made their way up to Millinocket where they stocked up on groceries and filled up on gas.

When they got to the boat launch, they loaded up the boat with supplies for the first of two trips they planned to make to their camping site.

“My first concern was, OK, are we overweight?” Valente said, but as he made one last trip to the truck, he looked back at the boat and said, “We’re in good shape.”

Though the lake was rough, Valente said he had seen it 10 times worse on a trip a few years back. Before they left, they spoke with a park ranger and waved to the game warden.

“There wasn’t any problem at all,” Valente said. “We were having a good time.”

About halfway through the 10 mile boat trip, the waves started getting bigger. They pulled the boat onto shore and put on their raincoats, so their clothes wouldn’t be soaking wet when they got to the camp site. The bugs were bad on shore, they commented; they were glad they weren’t stopping for good at that spot.

Keeping about a quarter of a mile from shore, they traveled along another mile or so before coming out into a cove where they turned into the wind. Within five minutes of making that turn, Valente said, waves were splashing on the side of the boat. Harmon drove on diagonally to both wind and waves, until the motor backfired.

“I’m not really sure what happened,” Valente said. “We had just put $280 of work into the motor.”

But it backfired again, and then stalled for good. The boat came to a halt, the back end dipped into the water and the waves from its wake came into the boat from behind.

“It just kept pouring into the boat,” Valente said. He immediately grabbed the three life jackets and threw two to his friends who managed to get them on before hitting the water. Valente wasn’t quick enough, though, and lost his life jacket as he fell backwards into the lake.

Three dry bags were strapped onto a cooler. Valente grabbed onto them as Grant got a hold of the canoe they had been towing. Valente and Grant both managed to get inside the canoe, but soon a wave came over, forcing them to abandon it as well.

Back in the water, Valente and Harmon held onto the dry bags, which were still attached to the boat. Valente retrieved his Leatherman from his belt and cut them loose. Valente and Harmon each kept a bag under their outside arm and shared the third between them. Meanwhile, Grant was about 30 feet away, held up by his life jacket. Valente yelled at him to swim to shore – he was floating in the wrong direction.

Valente and Harmon struggled to hold onto their dry bags, one of which they lost as they tried to kick to shore themselves. Harmon assured him they would make it.

“We were kicking really hard for the first 20 minutes,” Valente said, but then the cold set in.

“I remember asking Doug, ‘Are you still kicking?'” Valente said. “He said, ‘I can’t. I can’t move my legs.'”

The bag Harmon was holding started floating backwards as Valente was moving forward toward shore.

“It was around that time he told me to tell his kids that he loved them, and I yelled at him and said he could tell them himself. He said, ‘I’m just so cold and tired.’ I just kept telling him to hold on and stay with me,” Valente said. “That’s when he died.”

Though he knew his friend was gone, he kept holding onto him as he continued to kick.

“I wanted to keep him with me,” Valente said. He looked around for Grant. His life jacket wasn’t moving either. After about 10 minutes of holding onto Harmon, Valente lost his grip from the bag.

“I had to let go of him,” Valente said. For 20 minutes, Valente watched his friend float away face down in the water.

Soon Valente’s legs stopped moving as well.

“I remember thinking, ‘is this how it’s going to end?’ I remember thinking of my children and my wife and how devastated they would be,” Valente recalled. “I remember thinking how much easier it would be to let go and not hold on anymore,” he said. He tied the dry bag to his arm, so it would be easier to find his body.

That’s when he heard the voice of Susan Murchison, who had spotted him on the lake with her husband, Robert. The two managed to drag the 220-pound Valente onto their boat and bring him to shore.

“I don’t know how they did it,” Valente said.

Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Warden Service, said boaters should always check the weather forecast before leaving and let someone know where they’re going and when they expect to be back. Though the warden service strongly recommends that boaters wear their life jackets at all times, he said at this time of year, with water temperatures in the 50s and low 60s, it is especially important.

“It’s just a matter of time before you lose your ability to swim and tread water,” Latti said. “Scott was lucky.”

Though Valente said he still does not have feeling in his feet, he is expected to recover fully. Still, he’ll never get back the two friends he lost that day.

“I love him and I miss him dearly already,” Valente said.