A man floating on a pool lilo was picked up in the middle of the Mediterranean in a ‘miracle rescue’.
An oil tanker spotted the man 37km off the coast of Estpona after crew members thought they saw a ‘lost toy’.
But after looking through binoculars they saw the man bobbing along on the air bed using a makeshift oar.
Spain’s Maritime Safety and Rescue Society said: ‘Binoculars confirmed it was an adult male,fully clothed,calmly paddling in the middle of open water.’
‘He wasn’t a migrant,he wasn’t in distress,and he didn’t seem to think 37 kilometres offshore on a pool toy was particularly strange.
‘He just said he’d gone out for a paddle,and the current took him farther than planned.’
A high-speed rescue craft was scrambled to rescue the man and take him to Estepona port,where he was checked by medical staff but was released.
An oil tanker spotted the man 37km off the coast of Estpona after crew members thought they saw a ‘lost toy’ (Picture: Metro graphics)
The man was spotted 37km off the coast of Estpona on a lilo with a makeshit oar (Picture: SOLARPIX.COM)
The man was ‘not in distress and he didn’t seem to think 37 kilometres offshore on a pool toy was particularly strange’ (Picture: SOLARPIX.COM)
It comes after more than 50 cruise ship passengers were left floating at sea after a boat sank in the Caribbean.
Passengers aboard the German cruise ship Mein Schiff 1 set off on a catamaran on Sunday from Embat Pier to watch the sunset.
But a leak sprang on the 12-metre craft,named Boca de Yuma 1,flooding it and causing it to sink just off the shores of Samaná Bay.
Though all passengers were rescued,some suffered minor injuries, Dominican Today reported.
One passenger told the German news outlet RTL that ‘frightened passengers were not taken care of’ by cruise staff.
The boat that sank belongs to a tour company that provides excursions in the Los Haitises area,the local outlet Listin Diario reported.