Woman survives 38 hours in ocean after falling off cruise ship

A 32-year-old  Chinese woman who was on board Royal Caribbean’s 2,000-passenger Jewel of the Seas with her parents survived while being overboard for 38 hours while treading water and even falling asleep overnight.

The woman, identified only by the surname Fan, apparently slipped and fell off a railing on the 4^th deck of the massive ship. Fan said she avoided being pulled under other big ships by swimming frantically away and that she fell asleep treading water. She did sustain jellyfish stings, however. Once she was rescued, emergency workers rushed her to the hospital to attend to the wounds, which remarkably were her only scars from the plunge into the sea.

She was actually saved by a crew from a fishing vessel and brought back to the ship,  which she and her parents had boarded in Shanghai  for what she thought would be a glorious five-day holiday cruise. Fan attributed her swimming prowess to having graduating from a sports college.

During her 38 hours in the water, she was also able to rest by floating on the surface and waving her arms underwater. Her father reportedly tried to check the cruise ship’s surveillance cameras to find out what happened to her, but the footage only showed her walking back and forth.  

About 23 million people a year take cruises and in an average year about 20 people fall off cruise ships. Most don't survive to tell the tale.