{"id":26661,"date":"2026-11-14T09:37:59","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T09:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/?p=26661"},"modified":"2026-11-14T09:37:59","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T09:37:59","slug":"pianist-spent-9-hours-in-ocean-before-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/?p=26661","title":{"rendered":"Pianist spent 9 hours in ocean before rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What began as an ordinary day of fishing took an unexpected turn when Sean Norton and Grant Garrett came across a 37-year-old man treading water nearly 20 miles off the coast in the middle of the Pacific Ocean \u2013 and sprang into action to save him.<\/strong><br><br>The fishermen from Newport Beach were heading back from a fishing trip near Catalina Island on Friday when they spotted a Royal Caribbean crew member struggling to stay afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Garret told CBS News: \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Yeah, it\u2019s a human being. Stop the boat; let\u2019s get all of our lines in. \u2018\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGrant and I each got an arm and lifted him up,\u201d Norton explained. \u201cHe was in total shock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Garrett said the man identified himself as a pianist aboard the 14-deck Royal Caribbean cruise ship Ovation of the Seas after regaining consciousness. The ship was sailing from Long Beach to Ensenada, Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe only thing he said to me was, \u2018Thank you. I thought I was gonna die,&#8217;\u201d Norton told CBS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cPretty much in the middle of the ocean\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After rescuing the man, the fishermen issued an emergency maritime call, prompting Newport Beach lifeguards to respond and provide assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was approximately 15 to 20 miles offshore, pretty much in the middle of the ocean,\u201d Battalion Chief Adam Yacenda explained, according to CBS News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They suspect he fell overboard around 2:30 a.m., approximately nine hours before the fishermen found him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The man was later hospitalized, and is expected to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean Group said: \u201cWe are providing support and assistance to our crew member during this difficult time. To respect the privacy of our employee, we have no additional details to share.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Norton believes the unusually warm ocean temperatures may have played a crucial role in the man\u2019s survival. He pointed to the impact of a strong El Ni\u00f1o year, which had raised water temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou have this crazy super El Ni\u00f1o year. This guy was in the water for probably 10 hours, but the water\u2019s 76 degrees,\u201d Norton said. \u201cA different year, no way he makes it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What began as an ordinary day of fishing took an unexpected turn when Sean Norton and Grant Garrett came across a 37-year-old man treading water nearly 20 miles off the coast in the middle of the Pacific Ocean \u2013 and sprang into action to save him.The fishermen from Newport Beach were heading back from a &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26663,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26661\/revisions\/26663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}