Two Newport Beach fishermen pulled a Royal Caribbean cruise ship employee from the water nearly 20 miles off the coast on Friday, hauling him to safety after he had apparently been adrift for hours near Catalina Island. Sean Norton and Grant Garrett were headed home from a marlin fishing trip when they spotted the man treading water and realized he needed help immediately.
The pair found him by noon on Friday, according to CBS News, and lifted him from the water by each grabbing one of his arms. Garrett said the boat captain was the one who first spotted the man bobbing in the open ocean, giving the crew just enough time to turn and reach him.
Norton described the man as being in total shock once he was aboard, thanking his rescuers and telling them he thought he was going to die. The man was, per Garrett, a pianist aboard Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas, a ship with 14 decks. He has not been publicly identified.
Hours Adrift in the Open Water
Exactly how long the man had been in the water remains unclear, and accounts differ. Investigators believe he may have gone overboard roughly nine hours before he was found, while Norton told the station he thought the man had probably been treading water for closer to 10 hours. Norton also said the water temperature that day was 76 degrees Fahrenheit.
There is also some uncertainty about exactly where the rescue happened. The man was found treading water nearly 20 miles off the coast, though Adam Yacenda estimated the rescue site was somewhere between 15 and 20 miles offshore. After pulling him aboard, the fishing crew issued an emergency maritime call, and Newport Beach lifeguards responded to help.
Hospitalized, and Expected to Pull Through
The man was hospitalized following the ordeal. The U.S. Coast Guard said he is expected to survive, even as the agency continues investigating the incident and how he ended up in the water in the first place. CBS News said it had not received a response from Royal Caribbean officials after requesting comment on the rescue.
The waters off Avalon on Catalina Island have seen other close calls. Earlier reporting from CBS News described a Coast Guard rescue of a missing boater and his dog near the island, with the boater found in a dinghy nearly 1,400 yards from his sailing vessel and suffering from mild hypothermia.
A Rare but Recurring Hazard at Sea
Cruise ship overboard incidents are statistically uncommon but not unheard of. According to Cruise Radio, the cruise industry recorded 19 confirmed man-overboard incidents in 2024 involving both passengers and crew members, even as 31.7 million people cruised worldwide in 2023. The outlet also reported that the Cruise Lines International Association found the overall incident rate fell by nearly 35% between 2009 and 2019 even as industry capacity grew by 68%, putting the average annual rate at just 0.0004 over that period.
Survival after going overboard is far from guaranteed. The Union Leader reported that 212 overboard incidents involving cruise guests and employees were recorded globally between 2009 and 2019, with only 48 people rescued. Other cases show rescues can take much longer than what happened off Newport Beach: in 2018, a Norwegian Cruise Line crew member who fell from the Norwegian Getaway near Cuba was not found until the next day, when a hotel steward aboard the Carnival Glory spotted him in the water, according to CNN. That crew member was later treated by the Carnival Glory's medical team and listed in stable condition.
More recently, the New York Times reported that a woman adrift for 20 hours in the Ionian Sea following an incident involving Royal Caribbean's Odyssey of the Seas was rescued by a passing cargo vessel last month, found conscious and still holding onto a life preserver. Against that backdrop, the quick work by two Newport Beach anglers returning from a marlin trip may have made all the difference for the man found treading water off Catalina.
