Cruise ship pianist rescued after 9 hours at sea
LOS ANGELES: A pianist working on a cruise ship was rescued by two fishermen after drifting for nine hours in the Pacific Ocean about 30km off the coast of California, US media reported.
Cruising off the California coast, a 37-year-old pianist found himself in peril when he fell overboard from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the Ovation of the Seas. The incident unfolded around 2:30am on Friday, leaving the man adrift in the Pacific Ocean for a grueling nine hours before being spotted by two skilled fishermen.
Grant Garrett and Sean Norton, the brave rescuers, were on a routine marlin fishing expedition near Santa Catalina Island when they noticed the lifeless body floating in the sea. Garrett immediately called out to the man, requesting them to halt their vessel. The exhausted pianist, in a state of shock, uttered only one word before passing out: "Thank you." He expressed gratitude for his miraculous survival through the ordeal.
The fishermen promptly issued an emergency maritime call, alerting authorities to the situation. Upon their arrival, a team of Newport Beach lifeguards joined the rescue efforts. The rescuers proposed that the pianist's ability to endure the nine-hour drift might be attributed to the unusually mild ocean temperature, a phenomenon linked to the El Nino effect.
Despite the life-threatening nature of the incident, the pianist was not in a critical condition upon his arrival at the hospital. The US Coast Guard confirmed that the man's identity remains undisclosed. Amidst the rescue, the pianist managed to play a few notes on his makeshift piano, creating a poignant backdrop to his gripping tale of survival.
Written by urgent.news from New Straits Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
