A 37-year-old cruise ship pianist miraculously survived more than nine hours in the Pacific Ocean after falling overboard before two fishermen rescued him off the Southern California coast on Friday.
The man fell from Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas, a 14-deck cruise ship that holds more than 4,000 passengers and 1,500 crew members. Officials believe he entered the water around 2:30 a.m.
Fishermen Sean Norton and Grant Garrett found him floating nearly 20 miles offshore around noon as they returned from a fishing trip near Catalina Island. They pulled him into their boat and made an emergency maritime call.
Garrett said he spotted the man in the water and told Norton to stop the boat so they could reel in their fishing lines.
“The only thing he [the pianist] said to me was, ‘Thank you. I thought I was gonna die,’” Norton told CBS News.
The pianist was brought ashore and rushed to a nearby hospital in stable condition.
Norton credited unusually warm ocean temperatures with helping the man survive.
“You have this crazy super El Niño year. This guy was in the water for probably 10 hours, but the water’s 76 degrees,” he said. “A different year, no way he makes it.”
“We are providing support and assistance to our crew member during this difficult time,” a Royal Caribbean spokesperson told CNN. “To respect the privacy of our employee, we have no additional details to share.”
The rescue comes after another passenger fell overboard from a Royal Caribbean ship in October and survived 20 hours in the water, aided in part by warm temperatures and a lifebuoy she clung to until help arrived.
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