An employee of a cruise ship was rescued about 20 miles off the coast of Southern California, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Sunday.
The man was transferred to lifeguards in Newport Beach, Calif., and taken to a hospital in stable condition on Friday, the Coast Guard said. Lifeguards in Newport Beach confirmed that he was an employee of Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas cruise ship, the agency said.
He has not been publicly identified.
The Coast Guard said it was notified that a “good Samaritan” had recovered the man conscious about 10 miles northeast of Catalina Island, near Los Angeles. The agency said it was investigating the episode.
The island’s harbor regularly hosts cruise ships that anchor offshore and ferries that carry passengers to and from the mainland.
Two fishermen returning from a fishing trip near Catalina Island spotted the man treading water in the Pacific Ocean, they told CBS Los Angeles. They pulled him aboard their boat and issued an emergency maritime call, prompting lifeguards in Newport Beach to respond.
Grant Garrett, one of the fishermen, told CBS that the man in distress was a pianist aboard the cruise ship.
Lifeguard officials estimated that the man might have gone overboard around 2:30 a.m., about nine hours before he was rescued, CBS reported. The Newport Beach Fire Department, which oversees the city’s lifeguards, referred questions to a representative who did not immediately respond on Sunday evening.
The Ovation of the Seas is a 14-deck Royal Caribbean cruise ship that entered service in 2016. The vessel, which stretches more than 1,100 feet, can accommodate more than 4,000 passengers and has about 1,500 crew members.
The Ovation of the Seas was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on Friday, after a four-night cruise that included stops at Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico, according to a sailing schedule published by Royal Caribbean’s website.
The company’s entertainment website lists jobs for solo pianists who can play classical music, jazz standards, Broadway tunes and pop hits, as well as piano players in its orchestras. Applicants must be at least 18 to be hired.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Water temperatures off Southern California were in the mid-70s on Friday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Waters in the region have been unusually warm this year. The gradual warming in recent years has been supercharged by the latest El Niño, a recurring climate pattern characterized by warmer Pacific Ocean temperatures.
In a separate incident in August, a man survived 15 hours at sea after becoming separated from his rented jet ski off Long Beach, on the mainland across from Catalina Island. A Coast Guard official said warm water and his life jacket had helped him survive.
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