Pianist rescued from a cruise ship that fell into the sea and spent nine hours adrift

A man, who claimed to be the pianist of a 14-story cruise ship of the Royal Caribbean company, was rescued last Friday by two fishermen after supposedly falling into the water from the deck of the ship and spending nearly nine hours floating adrift, according to the British BBC channel this Monday, citing American media. It happened on the coast of California, next to Catalina Island, about 32 kilometers from the shore. "I said, 'He's a human being!' "Stop the ship!" said Grant Garrett, one of the sailors, recalling the moment he and his partner Sean Norton saw the man in the water.

The individual was taken to a hospital in stable condition, the US Coast Guard told the BBC, adding that the incident is being investigated.

Fishermen said the man identified himself as a pianist aboard the Ovation of the Seas cruise ship. “The only thing he said to me was: 'Thank you. "I thought I was going to die," Norton added. The Coast Guard later confirmed in a statement that "a good Samaritan rescued a conscious person from the water," and the Newport Beach lifeguard service confirmed that it was an employee of the cruise ship.

Speaking to the BBC, a Royal Caribbean Group spokesperson simply stated: “We are providing support and assistance to our crew member during this difficult time. Out of respect for our employee's privacy, we have no further details to share.”

Those responsible for the rescue services estimate that the man may have fallen into the sea around 2:30 a.m. on Friday, about nine hours before being found by the fishermen. “It was about 15 or 20 miles from the coast, practically in the middle of the ocean,” Adam Yacenda, head of the Newport Beach lifeguard team, explained to CBS.

Sailor Sean Norton attributed the man's survival to unusually warm ocean temperatures. “We are facing a year of an exceptionally intense El Niño phenomenon. "This man was in the water for probably ten hours, but the water temperature was 76 degrees Fahrenheit [about 24 degrees Celsius]," Norton stressed. "In any other year, he wouldn't have survived."