Thousands of people go on cruise ship vacations every single year, and unless I’m mistaken, the vast majority of them come home without incident. You hear the horror stories, of course, but even the ones that involve mass bathroom incidents and pandemic surges can’t stop people from sailing the seas.
Most of us, though, probably just assume we’ll be able to stay aboard the ship as it chugs from port-to-port, but lives have been lost when passengers have slipped overboard in the past.
Image Credit: US Coast Guard
That’s what makes this story, about a man who not only survived the fall from the ship, but in the ocean for more than a dozen hours, all the more remarkable.
The passenger, a 28-year-old male, had been with his group, having drinks, when he decided to go to the bathroom. Apparently he needed some air and never returned, and after his family didn’t hear from him the next morning, either, his sister raised the alarm.
The Coast guard dispatched boats and a surveillance plane and a report from a nearby carrier, the Crinis, about a person in the water helped narrow down the search area.
Cameras helped detect the man, still treading water after at least 15 hours, and a Jayhawk helicopter was able to perform the rescue operation.
Image Credit: US Coast Guard
Though he showed signs of hypothermia and dehydration, doctors at the New Orleans Lakefront Airport reported that he was stable and relatively unharmed.
Lt. Seth Gross, a Sector New Orleans search and rescue coordinator, released a statement.
“We are beyond grateful that this case ended with a positive outcome. It took a total team effort from Coast Guard watchstanders, response crews, and our professional maritime partners operating in the Gulf of Mexico to locate the missing individual and get him to safety. If not for the alert crew aboard the motor vessel Crinis, this case could have had a much more difficult ending.”
This man was extremely lucky, as the chances of surviving a fall alone from the upper decks of a cruise ship are very slim. Add in cold water shock, sharks, chop, and a hundred other factors the ocean can throw at you without warning, and this is basically a miracle.
Image Credit: US Coast Guard
Gross totally agrees, according to his interview on CNN.
“The fact that he was able to keep himself afloat and above the surface of the water for such an extended period of time, it’s just something you can’t take for granted and certainly something that’ll stick with me forever. It’s the absolute longest that I’ve heard about – and just one of those Thanksgiving miracles.”
It might be great to be lucky in love, but lucky in being discovered in the actual ocean is something else altogether.
I hope this guy lives like he’s got a new lease on life, because he definitely does.
