A woman described only as a Chinese national in her 20s was rescued Wednesday 37 hours after a current swept her inflatable tube 50 miles out from a beach in Shimoda, Japan, the AP reports.
The unnamed woman had been lounging on the tube on Monday evening local time when winds coming down from the mountains on the Boso Peninsula – about 125 miles southwest of Tokyo – had pushed her into the Pacific Ocean’s current. A passing cargo ship spotted her and notified a nearby liquified natural gas carrier, the Kakuwa Maru No 8, asking for help. Two of the Kakuwa 8’s crew jumped into the water and tied a rope to the weakened woman. A Japanese Coast Guard helicopter then responded and took the lucky tuber back to land where she was hospitalized briefly.