Swimmer lost for 37 hours rescued while floating 80 km off Japanese coast

A simple trip to the beach became a castaway nightmare for one woman in Japan who spent 37 hours adrift in the Pacific Ocean after she was swept out to sea in an inflatable swim ring, local officials said.

The woman, a Chinese national in her 20s who has not been named, was rescued on Wednesday more than 80 kilometres off the coast of Japan.

Though the Japanese Coast Guard had already launched a search for the woman, she was spotted bobbing alone in the water by a passing cargo ship, the Associated Press reported.

Personnel on the cargo ship asked an LPG tanker, the Kakuwa Maru No. 8, to assist in the rescue. Two crew members from the tanker jumped into the water to save the woman.

Witnesses said the waves were at least two metres high at the time of the rescue.

Once the exhausted woman was pulled out of the ocean, coast guard officials then used a helicopter to airlift her to hospital.

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In video of the incident released by the coast guard, the woman in seen wrapped in a blue towel as she waits on the deck of the cargo ship. As she is lifted into the helicopter with a rope, the woman waves to the tanker crew.

The woman and her friend had been visiting a beach in the town of Shimoda, on the country’s southeastern peninsula.

The friend contacted the coast guard to report the woman missing, initiating the 37-hour search. An official from the coast guard told Agence France-Presse the friend first visited a nearby convenience store just before 8 p.m. local time on Monday in search of help for the missing woman.

The woman was spotted by seamen onboard the cargo ship around 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday and was rescued shortly after.

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It is not exactly clear how the woman was swept out to sea, but AP reported she was likely pushed by a current and evening seaward wind from the mountains. Her swim ring also may have made it more difficult to battle the wind and swim back to shore.

She was treated for dehydration but was not admitted to hospital. She was released in good condition.

Japanese Coast Guard officials said the woman is lucky to be alive. Had her luck been worse, the woman could have been exposed to heat stroke, hypothermia or could have been hit by a passing ship at night.