Woman ‘survives for 38 hours in Jellyfish infested waters after cruise ship fall

A woman who fell overboard on a Royal Caribbean cruise from Japan to China survived floating in the sea for more than 38 hours, according to reports.

The unnamed 32-year-old from Shanghai was travelling with her parents on Wednesday when she failed to return from a stroll around the ship, Chinese media has said.

After her parents and more than 100 volunteers searched the ship, a police office told her father that there was little chance of survival had she fallen the 20 metres from the deck to the water.

On Friday, two days later, the father received a phone call telling him that his daughter had been spotted floating alive in the coastal waters near Zhoushan by a fishing boat.

The 32 year old who is said to be a very strong swimmer had fallen off the cruise ship while leaning over the rail to look at the sea.

After being rescued on Friday around noon she was too weak to eat until later that evening, and was then taken home with by her parents on Saturday.

Cases of passengers falling from cruise ships are not as rare as one might think. According to the website Cruise Junkie, 270 cruise and ferry passengers and crew members have gone overboard since 2000, with 2015 recording the highest total, when 27 people toppled into the sea. Generally, such instances tend to be down to suicide, drunkenness or foul play.

Last year a 22-year-old American, Frank Jade, plunged unnoticed from the deck of another Royal Caribbean cruise ship, only to be picked up a few hours later after being miraculously spotted by a Disney Cruise Line vessel. Slightly less relevantly, this week saw a British pensioner rescued from the Atlantic after she attempted to swim from the shore to her cruise ship.