Abby Connolly
Carpinteria, California. A man in California was stranded in the middle of the ocean after falling off his boat. He had to swim for five hours before getting rescued.
Scott Thompson, a fisherman in California, was getting ready to work on the Channel Islands to dive for some urchins when a bad patch of weather hit his boat, which he named “Miss Grace.”
Thompson decided to try and turn around to head back home. However, as he was briefly standing near the edge of his boat, the boat got hit by some choppy water, causing him to lose his footing and fall into the ocean.
Thompson attempted to swim towards his boat to get back on, but “Miss Grace” had been moving away faster than he could swim. As a result, he was completely stranded, wearing only shorts and a teeshirt.
“I can’t imagine how terrifying and lonely Scott must have felt in that moment,” writes Rose Brown, a friend of Thompson.
“He focused on his wife Tricia, their two daughters Grace (5) and Lily (8 months), and their adult son Jacob, and he started swimming.”
Luckily, Thompson was able to see some oil platforms off in the distance and decided to swim towards them.
After five grueling hours of swimming, he pulled himself onto one of the platforms and was able to wait for assistance.
GoFundMe; pictured above is Scott with his boat
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