REALLY. This story is hard to believe.

"A cruise ship passenger had been missing for hours before he was rescued from sea waters by the U.S. Coast Guard off of Louisiana's southeast coast on Thursday evening. The passenger, who officials identified as a 28-year old man, was found about 20 miles south of Southwest Pass, La., after he'd fallen overboard from a Carnival Valor cruise ship on Wednesday evening, the Coast Guard said in a press release.

However, cruise ship officials did not contact the Coast Guard New Orleans Sector to report the missing passenger until 2:30 p.m. local time on Thursday. Hours later, aircrew members of the Coast Guard rescued the passenger at 8:25 p.m. It was a crew aboard the bulk carrier vessel Crinisthat had alerted Coast Guard members to the man's location after spotting a person in the water."

Unless my math is bad, that's like 24 hours in the ocean.

 

I guess anything is possible but I would think he would have experienced hypothermia by that time, even in warm waters it happens. It would be some kind of miracle but he was sure lucky either way. I don't know if I could last more than a few hours and I am a pretty good swimmer.

 

What’s hard for me to believe is that the guy fell overboard. Having cruised many times, I think he would have to open closed gates, or climb over railings to wind up in the water. Maybe he was really really drunk……

 

Incredible story. I'd love to hear an interview with the guy.

 

People ending up overboard is more common that one would think, it almost always involves drinking , drugs, or some form of malice , they are rarely found though, almost never.

 

I'm not sure I'd last an hour.....

 

I suspect weight or more specifically density comes into the equation as well.
Fat is a lot lighter and will tend to float. that skin and bones kid is screwed while ol' fatty might do ok.
The fat will also help with sustaining body warmth.
For long term survival there is also the dead man float, breathe, float face down, lift head breathe, rinse, wash, repeat.
It takes substantially less energy than truly treading water and keeping you head up.

 

Surely a shark would have found him after that long.

 

I can stay afloat for a pretty long time, even for just recreational swimming. But have never really timed it. 24 hours is an extremely long time. If you are one that can float on your back easily though, I can see it being more possible as you can switch back and forth between that and treading water. If you practice treading water you can do it with very low amounts of energy too. But a lot depends on your body makeup and some cannot float on their back at all. But hypothermia would still be a huge issue in most cases depending on where you are. Even in what feels like comfortable water temps you can get hypothermia.

 

Now they are reporting it was 15 hours. Still that is unreal.