Elleda Wilson: Man overboard

Elleda Wilson, The Daily Astorian, Ore.
·1 min read

Dec. 8—A 28-year-old passenger aboard the Carnival Valor cruise ship, James Grimes, had a good deal to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day, the Independent.co.uk reports. He fell overboard, and spent 15 hours treading water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Last seen leaving one of the ship's bars on Thanksgiving eve, his sister reported him missing on Thanksgiving Day, and U.S. Coast Guard Sector New Orleans rescue crews began searching. Luckily, the crew members aboard a bulk carrier reported sighting a person in the water that evening, and Grimes was rescued by a U.S. Coast Guard air crew, just in time, apparently. Remarkably, he was uninjured.

"... I was never accepting that this is it. This is going to be the end of my life," he said during an interview on ABC News' Good Morning America (he is pictured in a screenshot). "... You know, the fall didn't kill me, you know, sea creatures didn't eat me, I felt like I was meant to get out of there."

"I definitely would be open to go on another cruise," he added, "because I really didn't get to go on this one."