DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (UPI) -- A Missouri couple captured live video of an encounter with a large alligator that hopped onto their boat during a tour in Florida.

Tylor Hindery and his wife Emerald Hindery were on a guided boat tour of a swamp in Daytona Beach when their boat approached a large gator that decided to come along for a ride, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

"You can reach out and slap him, can't you?" The tour guide said as the boat approached the lounging gator, as captured by Tylor Hindery on Facebook live.

The couple said the wind blew the boat closer to the a mud bank, at which point the gator decided to hop onto the boat.

"At that point, it kind of, for a few seconds, was like this isn't real life right now," Tylor Hindery told KY3.

The gator quickly sprinted to the other side of the boat where it struggled to squeeze through the metal railings before plopping itself into the water.

"We couldn't believe it was really happening, everyone was scrambling around and trying to get to the back" Emerald Hindery said. I stayed in my seat for a half second, then Tylor grabbed me and I somehow ended up in the driver's seat.

Hindery's friends and loved ones witnessed the events as they unfolded live on Facebook and feared for the couple's lives.

"My sister was watching it live and she said that she thought she was watching the end," he said. 'I thought I was going to get to see the end of my brother,' like she was excited--obviously she was joking.

While Hindery achieved his goal of seeing a gator up close, his wife hopes they don't experience any similar encounters on future trips to Florida.

"Maybe we don't really want to top it; we'll just plateau right at this one and maybe a little tamer trips from now," she said.

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