Cruise ship pianist rescued nine hours after falling overboard: 'I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE'
· Toronto Sun
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A cruise ship employee was rescued by two fisherman near the California coast, several hours after he went overboard from a Royal Caribbean ship.
Sean Norton and Grant Garrett of Newport Beach were returning home on Friday morning after fishing for marlin near California’s Catalina Island when their boat’s captain saw someone floating in the Pacific Ocean waters, KCBS reported.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s a human being. Stop the boat, let’s get all of our lines in,’” Garrett recalled of the rescue, which happened just before noon.
The two men “Grant and I each got an arm and lifted him up, and he was in total shock,” Norton detailed, adding that the “only thing” the man said to him was, ‘Thank you. I thought I was going to die.’”
How long was he in the water?
The crew put out an emergency maritime call, and several Newport Beach lifeguards responded.
Garrett said when the man came to, he told them he was a pianist on the Ovation of the Seas, a 14-deck Royal Caribbean cruise ship that was headed back to Long Beach from Ensenada, Mexico.
According to cruisemapper.com , a four-night, round-trip cruise returned to the Los Angeles port on Friday morning at 7 a.m. local time.
“It was approximately 15 to 20 miles offshore, pretty much in the middle of the ocean,” Lifeguard Battalion Chief Adam Yacenda told the outlet. They believe he may have gone overboard from the ship about nine hours before he was found, at around 2:30 a.m.
The cruise ship employee, who has not yet been identified, was hospitalized and is expected to survive, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The circumstances surrounding the incident and how he went overboard are being investigated, the Coast Guard said.
Did super El Nino save him?
“We are providing support and assistance to our crew member during this difficult time. To respect the privacy of our employee, we have no additional details to share,” a Royal Caribbean Group spokesperson said in a statement.
“I’m glad we were there, and I’m glad he’s doing OK,” Garrett told the outlet.
“You have this crazy super El Nino year. This guy was in the water for probably 10 hours, but the water’s 76 degrees,” Norton added. “A different year, no way he makes it.”