Adrift for Days in an Inflatable Tube, Woman Rescued Off Coast of Japan by Passing Sailors

nnAn amazing survival story comes from the southeast coastal waters of Japan where a Chinese woman survived days adrift at sea clinging to an inflatable intertube.nnReported missing last Monday by her friends, the unnamed Chinese national was swimming with friends on a beach in the city of Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture.nnThe coast guard was alerted that she was in her 20s and holding onto an inflatable recreational intertube.nnThe woman wasn’t located in Shizuoka, and it wasn’t until 8:00 am on Wednesday, 36 hours after going missing, that a passing cargo ship encountered her in the waters of the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture.nnShe had floated over 50 miles (80 kilometers) during that time, but mercifully the waters hovered around 24.1 degrees Celsius, or about 75 degrees Fahrenheit.nnBeing extremely large, the cargo ship hailed a passing tanker to help. Two of its crew members, believing the drifting speck of humanity in the vast empty ocean was a member of the cargo ship’s crew, jumped in to rescue her, while those remaining onboard called out for her not to give up.nn

nnOnce in the water, the crew secured a rope around her waist as she was too exhausted to climb the ladder. After 36 hours and several tense minutes, the young woman and her sodden, wobbly knees were on deck.nnSALTWATER SAVIORS: Stranded Women and Dogs Rescued After 5 Months Drifting on Pacific OceannnVideo released by the Japanese coast guard who eventually air-lifted the woman to a hospital, shows her standing on the tanker’s main deck wrapped in a blanket. Apart from exhaustion, the woman was unharmed and walked out of the hospital of her own initiative.nnSIMILAR CLOSE CALLS: Teen Swimmers Drifting in the Ocean Prayed for Help – And Suddenly are Rescued by Boat Named ‘Amen’nnHidetoshi Saito, a senior member of the Society of Water Rescue and Survival Research, said in a televised interview that the woman’s survival was like “a miracle.”nnSHARE This Woman’s Terrifying Ordeal And Fortunate Rescue With Your Friends…