Two Fishermen Stopped Mid-Trip for a Stranger at Sea. He’s Expected to Survive.

Two Newport Beach fishermen, Sean Norton and Grant Garrett, pulled a man from the Pacific Ocean near Catalina Island, about 20 miles off the Southern California coast, on Friday, Nov. 6. The man, a 37-year-old who said he was a pianist on a cruise ship, had been in the water for roughly nine hours, officials believe. Reports say he is expected to survive.¹³

Norton and Garrett had gone out looking for marlin. They were on their way back when they spotted someone treading water in open ocean.¹⁴

“Stop the boat; let’s get all of our lines in,” Garrett said, according to KCBS interviews reported by Cox Media Group.⁵

The two men then hauled him out of the water. “Grant and I each got an arm and lifted him up,” Norton said.⁵

Norton told KCBS: “The only thing he said to me was, ‘Thank you. I thought I was gonna die,’”⁵

The man told the fishermen he played piano aboard Ovation of the Seas, a ship run by Royal Caribbean. The ship had been sailing from Long Beach to Ensenada, Mexico.³⁶

A long night without a life jacket

Officials believe he went overboard at about 2:30 a.m. and spent around nine hours in the water with no life jacket before Norton and Garrett found him. That figure is an official estimate, and some reports put it as high as 10 hours.²⁶ The Washington Times reported that he was found around noon.⁴

How he ended up in the ocean is still under investigation by the Coast Guard, and the cause has not been established.³⁴

Norton credits part of the man’s survival to the weather. This is a strong El Niño year, and Norton said the water was 76 degrees.²⁵

What happened next

After the rescue, the fishermen made an emergency maritime call, and Newport Beach lifeguards came out to meet their boat.³⁷ The man was taken to a hospital.³

His name has not been released. Royal Caribbean said it is supporting its crew member and, out of respect for his privacy, has no further details to share.⁵