‘Not drunk’ cruise passenger fell into shark-infested waters and lived on bamboo
A 28-year-old man who cannot remember falling off a cruise ship survived an estimated 20 hours in shark-infested waters and chewed on bamboo to keep hunger at bay.
James Michael Grimes, from the US state of Alabama, was rescued from the Gulf of Mexico after being reported as missing even though he is unable to recall plunging overboard the Carnival Valor liner.
It meant he spent most of Thanksgiving Day treading water, having apparently woken up in the sea after losing consciousness.
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"I came to. I was in the water with no boat in sight," Grimes told ABC's Good Morning America news show.
He had been just hours into a cruise with his family that had departed on Thanksgiving Eve from New Orleans to Mexico when he vanished.
Grimes had been drinking at a bar with his sister when he headed off to the toilets at about 11pm the night before Thanksgiving.
He told ABC that he was not drunk and cannot remember leaving his sister to find a restroom.
But, when he found himself in the sea, Grimes added: "I was never accepting that this is it. This is going to be the end of my life."
As he focused on staying alive, Grimes fought fatigue, confusion and also an unknown creature below the surface.
Describing his mystery companion, he said: "It came up on me really quick and I went under and I could see it. It wasn't a shark, I don't believe but it had more like a flat mouth and it came up and bumped one of my legs.
"I kicked it with the other leg. It scared me, not knowing what it was. All I could see was a fin."
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Grimes also grabbed a floating stick that "looked like bamboo" and started eating it, explaining on the current affairs programme: "It gave some type of flavour in my mouth other than saltwater."
With his family reporting him as missing at noon on Thanksgiving Day, he had still not been located as the water temperature dropped to 21C during the early evening.
He was eventually rescued when he saw a tanker ship's lights and swam towards it, with the crew spotting him at about 8.25pm.
They alerted the Coast Guard and a helicopter crew hoisted him up from the water and he was checked over in hospital.
"The first thing I actually told (the Coast Guard rescuer) was, 'I don't have any clothes on,' because I stripped out of everything," Grimes said. "He said, 'That's fine.'
"I was just thinking, 'Thank you. You are like a guardian angel coming down for me.'"
Despite his ordeal, Grimes has not been put off cruises.
"I might not get within 10ft of the rails, but I definitely would be open to go on another cruise, because I really didn't get to go on this one," he pointed out.
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