A MAN who plunged into the ocean in the course of the night time claims he was nudged to security by a SEAL.
Scott Thompson says felt certain he was “going to die” after he fell into the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of California sporting solely shorts and a t-shirt miles from dry land.
2
2
After touchdown within the water at midnight, Scott’s motorboat continued with out him as he frantically tried to meet up with the vessel.
He mentioned: “I believed to myself, nice, that is how I’ll die. Right now is the day I’ll die.”
Scott – who says he’s an skilled swimmer and an skilled diver – felt panic set in because the chilly chilled his physique.
He says he instructed himself to maintain swimming and, considering of his household, he began transferring by means of the water.
“I used to be devastating myself, by means of my thoughts, simply picturing my ladies and my son rising up with out me, and my spouse, you understand, not having a husband to assist her,” he mentioned.
“I wasn’t occupied with sharks or something like that, till I hear this splash.”
Scott shortly realised it was a medium-sized harbour seal and he mentioned it went underneath the water and nudged him “like a canine comes up and nudges your leg” all through his five-hour swim to security.
He reportedly noticed it as a “signal from God” that he may make it.
“Did it know, like hey, this human is in bother, hey preserve going dude?,” he added.
Scott saved swimming, not in the direction of dry land, however in the direction of an oil rig, which, whereas distant, was nearer to him than the shore.
He ultimately reached the oil platform.
“It began getting brighter and I am similar to, I am crying. And I am like, shouting on the sky,” he mentioned.
Scott was seen by the crew on the platform and so they rescued him from the water. He was then taken by the coastguard to hospital, the place he was handled for hypothermia.
His vessel was retrieved by a tow boat crew, who reportedly couldn’t consider that he had survived the ordeal.
Channel Watch Marine Paul Amaral mentioned: “Even placing on a wetsuit, being ready, getting in that water, and swimming to the platform was horrendous.
“I can not think about being within the water with shorts and a T-shirt at night time. There was no moon, I imply it was pitch black.”
