Fishermen found a pianist lost overboard after nine hours in the water off California
A pianist who played on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship went overboard off Southern California. Nearly nine hours later, fishermen from Newport Beach found him treading water and pulled him out alive.
10 November 2026
He worked as a pianist on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship sailing off Southern California. At some point he went over the side.
Nine hours
He stayed afloat in the Pacific, treading water, for about nine hours. He was nearly 20 miles off the coast, near Catalina Island.
The boat
A fishing boat from Newport Beach came by and the fishermen spotted him in the water. They pulled him aboard alive.
Few people who go overboard from a cruise ship are ever found alive.
Carry a story in five words
We run a game called Long Story Short: one real news sentence a day, and you keep the five words that carry it. Today’s is below. Do play.
How to play
One real news sentence. The job is to keep the five words that carry the story and let the rest go, then guess. Blue means the right word in the right place, orange the right word in the wrong place.
Yesterday: Out looking for birds that had flown into downtown windows, a Toronto volunteer stooped to help what looked like a mouse and found it was an endangered bat. The five were Toronto volunteer found endangered bat.