Boater survives swimming for 5 hours with help from friendly seal

• A boater had to swim for five hours straight to keep afloat after he accidentally fell out of his boat.
• He said that thoughts of his family helped him carry on, as well as the encouragements of a friendly harbor seal.
• He managed to swim to the nearest oil platform, where he received the aid he needed.

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A boater in California accidentally fell out of his boat and had to swim for five hours to stay afloat. He managed to carry on with thoughts of his family, and a little encouragement from a friendly seal.

Scott Thompson was on his boat when he accidentally fell into the middle of the frigid Santa Barbara Channel.

As he watched his boat sail off into the distance, he dreaded the thought that these were his final moments.

Scott said that the thought of getting home to his family kept him afloat.

“I was devastating myself, through my mind,” Scott recalled. “Just picturing my girls and my son growing up without me, and my wife, you know, not having a husband to support her.”

He said that he didn’t even think about sharks until he heard a splash nearby.

It turns out that it was a friendly harbor seal who came to urge him on.

“The seal would go underwater and he came up and nudged me, like a dog comes up and nudges your leg,” Scott shared. “Did it know, like hey, this human is in trouble, hey keep going dude?”

As he was urged along by the seal, Scott spotted an oil platform. It was far but was still closer than the shore, so he pushed through and swam toward it.

“You gotta make it to the platform because you have no choice,” Scott had told himself.

It took him five hours to get to the platform, where the crew assisted him. He was then taken to the hospital by the Coast Guard. He had to be treated for hypothermia, among others.

Channel Watch Marine Paul Amaral was amazed by Scott’s survival.

He explained, “Even putting on a wet suit, being prepared, getting in that water, and swimming to the platform was horrendous. I can’t imagine being in the water with shorts and a T-shirt at night. There was no moon, I mean it was pitch black.”

Scott has since called the seal who helped him an “angel.”

Source: sunny skyz