A woman is recovering today after spending nearly 15 hours in Lake Erie after she fell from her jet ski on Sunday before sunset.
The 56-year-old woman apparently lost her grip on the jet ski and fell into the water, the strong winds and waves keeping her away from getting back on. She was on a trip from Put-in-Bay with family.
It led to an overnight search for 14 hours with no luck, until officials got a call the following morning from Nathan Dailey, who was fishing with his family.
"The waves were four feet," he said. "It’s just a miracle that we even saw her.
"As soon as we pulled her up and got her husband on the phone and he knew she was okay, she passed out."
They knew a search was on for the woman—keeping a watchful eye out after crews spent more than a dozen hours on the water.
"She described to us this morning that she was paddling in the water to where she knew boats would find her," Chief Petty Officer David Turner with the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Marblehead said. "She put up a real big fight."
The Coast Guard says the woman had drifted away from her jet ski that was found hours earlier.
"She drifted from close to South Bass Island, all the way to Port Clinton," Turner added. "That’s about, we’re estimating, about 12 to 14 miles out."
Turner said the woman was exhausted and hypothermic. The water temperature was at 79 degrees—and rain fell through the night. Turner credits the woman’s life jacket and experience on the water for keeping her alive.
"She had an incredible will to survive," he said.
And it was the watchful eye of a family on a fishing trip that helped to bring the woman to safety.
"We just happened to be at the right place at the right time," Dailey said.
Turner said there a chance the woman could have been found earlier if the jacket was a brighter color, as she was wearing a black jacket. He added officials spoke to her this morning and she was in good spirits, and that she could be released from the hospital today.