Man Overboard - The Celebration
Tracy Cross
This was on the front page of this morning's Houston Chronicle. Talk about
lucky, he should have been in the casino.
Tracy
GALVESTON -- A Michigan man fell off a Carnival cruise ship and managed to
stay afloat until a passing cargo vessel rescued him about 17 hours later,
the Coast Guard confirmed Thursday.
Tim Sears, 31, of Lansing, Mich., was plucked from the Gulf of Mexico about
50 miles offshore. He had fallen from the Galveston-based cruise ship
Celebration around midnight Saturday.
The friend with whom he shared a cabin didn't realize Sears was lost until
the Celebration's captain got a message around 6 p.m. Sunday saying Sears
had been plucked from the water by the crew of another vessel, Carnival
spokeswoman Jennifer de la Cruz said Thursday. Carnival policies prevented
de la Cruz from confirming Sears' name or releasing personal information
about him, she said.
Sears arrived Monday in Port Arthur aboard the cargo ship Eny, Coast Guard
spokesman Petty Officer Andrew Kendrick said.
The rescue was "kind of miraculous," Kendrick said.
Sears was in Galveston Thursday to meet his friend and retrieve his
belongings when the ship returned from its cruise, de la Cruz said.
Sears could not be located for comment late Thursday.
However, Sears told the Port Arthur News in a story published this week that
he did not remember falling from the ship.
"I really don't know what happened," Sears said. "The boat left Galveston
about 4:30 Saturday afternoon and the last thing I remember was me and my
buddy talking to some girls in the casino around midnight.
"The next thing I knew I woke up in the water."
Sears told the paper that he saw several ships pass in the distance during
his ordeal.
"Several times I would say `Well, God, this is as far as I can go' and I
would start to go down," Sears said. "But then somehow I would come back up.
I wasn't really thinking about sharks or anything, I was just trying to stay
up.
"I dog paddled, I backstroked, I floated. I just did everything I could
think of. I kept swimming toward ships that I would see, and tried to flag
several down, but they didn't see me."
On Sunday around 5 p.m., he was able to flag down the Eny, a Maltese-flagged
cargo ship delivering copper to Port Arthur, by waving his yellow T-shirt.
"It was my first cruise, and it will probably be my last," Sears told the
Port Arthur newspaper.
Coast Guard officials said people on the bridge of the cargo ship spotted
Sears in the water.
Coast Guard members said incidents such as what Sears experienced don't
often end happily.
"We're just very thankful that some good Samaritan out there saw a guy in
the water, picked him up and took care of him," Kendrick said.
Reports Carnival received of the incident were similar to the story Sears
told the Coast Guard, de la Cruz said.
"According to his cabinmate, he was last seen in one of the ship's bars in
the very early hours of the morning of the 13th," de la Cruz said. "At some
point thereafter, he apparently went overboard. He treaded water all day and
was picked up by the cargo ship at approximately 5:30 the same day."
After the Celebration was notified of Sears' rescue, the vessel continued on
its 5-day cruise before heading back to Texas.
Carnival reported the incident to the Coast Guard and FBI when the cruise
line learned a man had fallen from one of their ships.
"My understanding is that it has been deemed accidental," de la Cruz said.
Mike Cordelli
up in the Water.
Sounds like one of those CSI shows. Was he tossed, did he fall, did they
drug his drinks, did the girl he was trying to pick up entice him to the
deck and then push him, etc. Could even be a two parter, end the first one
with a shark about to eat him.
Indeed, a very lucky person.
"Tracy Cross" <accessib...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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Paul
"Mike Cordelli" <mi...@cordelli.com> wrote in message
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fishman
"Mike Cordelli" <mi...@cordelli.com> wrote in message
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> up in the Water.
>
> Sounds like one of those CSI shows. Was he tossed, did he fall, did they
> drug his drinks, did the girl he was trying to pick up entice him to the
> deck and then push him, etc. Could even be a two parter, end the first
one
> with a shark about to eat him.
>
> Indeed, a very lucky person.
>
I was thinking that it must have been one helluva party! I always thought
the fall would be fatal - this guy is lucky. I would wonder about the
friend, however - to not notice after a full day?
Chris
Danni
"fishman" <fish195...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
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I think they refer to that as hung-over.
bissonm
"Stupid Carnival Goober!" Darn, I thought that would be fun to say, but
it wasn't.
-Monte
Dick Goldhaber
see how Wall Street reacts to the latest Carnival drunk.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ
video...@comcast.net
"Danni" <dann...@comcast.net> wrote in message
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James Ries
Re: Man Overboard - The Celebration
Group: rec.travel.cruises Date: Fri, Apr 18, 2003, 12:39pm From:
dann...@comcast.net (Danni)
I will say it here just as I said it in the other thread , HE WAS SHIT
FACED!!!!
Thomas Smith
the slots, either.
Tom Smith
"Danni" <dann...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:wM-dnbFDhba...@comcast.com...
>
Dick Goldhaber
times in my life.
I explained the green stains on the knees of my Army khakis in 1955 because
I got port wine blotted in Mannheim, Germany and I crawled back to the
barracks on my hands and knees.
I remember crawling on my hands and knees back to my room at Bally's Park
Place after way to many "Iced Teas"
But in spite of cruising since 1969 when drinks were $0.75, I have never
fallen off of a cruise ship.
I am interested in knowing how you do this.
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ
video...@comcast.net
"Thomas Smith" <thomas....@worldnet.att.net-NO-SPAM> wrote in message
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badger
Clay
Dick Goldhaber wrote:
>
> I am interested in knowing how you do this.
>
Dick Goldhaber
"Tom" <T...@edd1b7.edu> wrote in message
news:09b940fc1a9c9b10...@news.teranews.com...
> In article <wJucnedV0dN...@comcast.com>, Dick Goldhaber
> <video...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > I have been "shit faced" a couple of times in my life.
>
> Don't be modest. I've seen your posts.
>
> --
> Tom
Island Gal
<thomas....@worldnet.att.net-NO-SPAM> wrote:
>Maybe his roommate thought he got lucky in the casino, and I don't mean with
>the sluts, either.
lol