A Southern California boater thought he was going to die when he fell into the ocean. "Today is the day I'm going to die," Scott Thompson thought. He fell in the middle of the Santa Barbara Channel wearing only shorts and a T-shirt, miles away from land. His boat moved on without him.
Thompson decided to swim as hard as he could towards the moving vessel, but he wasn’t getting closer. With his lack of proper swimming gear and the coldness of the night, the experienced diver and swimmer felt the icy chill of the ocean."The panic set in it was like, wow, this is a pretty heavy situation," he said.
Thompson kept swimming regardless of the chills and the panic he felt until he heard a splash beside him. A medium-sized harbor seal approached Thompson. "The seal would go underwater and he came up and nudged me. Like a dog comes up and nudges your leg," he explained. The interaction was like a sign that he would survive. After his short moment with the seal, Thompson swam for five hours and reached the nearest oil platform. There he received first aid and was taken to a hospital to get treated for hypothermia and other injuries.
Image credit: Keith Luke