Survival at Sea: Woman Survives 19 Hours in the Pacific Ocean

Oct. 22, 2007 — -- Lillian Ruth Simpson didn't think she was going to make it.

The 49-year-old former drug and alcohol counselor fought currents, waves, extreme heat and utter exhaustion and survived after her canoe capsized about a mile off the coast of Maui Thursday, leaving her stranded in the Pacific Ocean for 19 hours.

Simpson was rowing toward two yachts moored near her camp ground in the hopes of inviting their occupants to a fundraiser for a documentary she is producing. The Alaska woman had been camping in Hawaii for the last two weeks.

For six hours she attempted to right her canoe, but it remained submerged. Simpson had no way to get back ashore.

But even as she panicked, she remained resourceful.

"I tied the tank top to my head to keep my head warm," Simpson said on "Good Morning America" today. "I tied the buoy bag to the tank top, wrapped it around my neck, which sounds precarious, and it was. And [I] slipped my arm through the buoy bag."

The buoy bag, a sack filled with air that is meant to keep a capsized canoe from sinking, served as Simpson's life preserver until she was rescued. It also kept her alive when she fell asleep in the ocean.

"I was able to sleep this way at times," she said. "I dreamed about palm trees, growing cypress."

But not all her dreams were so peaceful. Simpson had nightmares about what might be happening to her body as a result of swallowing so much salt water.

"You swallow that much salt water, you end up throwing up," she said. "The scariest, scariest part is when you throw up that violently, then you end up sucking in air. When the water is that rough, quite frankly, you suck in air and you're afraid you're going to suck in a wave at the same time. That was the scariest part."

As day turned to night, Simpson said she felt her only hope was to swim to shore, even though she was terrified to leave her canoe.