A few days ago, while boating alone late at night in the Santa Barbara Channel, a man named Scott Thompson somehow managed to fall out of his boat. He was wearing only a t-shirt and shorts when he was pitched into the chilly water.
Thompson was out far enough
that he could not see the California coast.
And he watched helplessly as his boat motored on into the black of night
without him.
With no other options, Scott Thompson
started swimming.
He feared he would die lost at sea.
But he kept swimming and swimming.
Steadily, the grim reality of
his predicament settled over Thompson. And
then—as he treaded the water and considered giving up entirely—he heard a
splash in the water nearby.
The splash, he soon discovered,
was made by a harbor seal. Upon reaching
Thompson, the seal repeatedly dove under water and nudged at his legs as if
urging him to swim on.
Scott Thompson saw the
appearance of the seal as a divine sign that against all odds he could make it.
After being nudged by the seal,
Thompson swam steadily toward to the nearest oil platform, which was far off
but closer than land.
Some five hours later, the crew
the oil platform fished Scott Thompson from the water.
—Mitchell Hegman
Source: Leo Stallworth, ABC News
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