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.

She worried the currents would push her out to sea, but with one arm around her buoy bag and the other being used to swim, Simpson headed for land.

As she fought to stay alive, she thought about her children, spelling out their names while she swam in order to keep moving — each letter was one stroke. After she made it through her two sons' and daughter's names, she rested before starting up again. It was a difficult journey for a woman who doesn't consider herself a strong ocean swimmer.

All night, five-foot swells knocked her around. When a fishing boat finally spotted Simpson and came to her aid, she worried that, like the previous ships she'd tried to flag down, it would not see or hear her.

But Capt. Joseph Carvalho did see her. It was between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Friday.

"I could tell it was a person," Carvalho said. "My first thought was that it was just a body, until I got closer and she turned around and put her hand up to signal us. [She] was a little disoriented. She was happy. She was definitely happy, real weak, real thirsty. She was hungry. Everybody got lucky. We were in the right place at the right time."

Simpson said she had nothing but gratitude for the man that saved her. After her rescue, she was treated at a hospital for dehydration and sunburn.

The experience has had a lasting effect on Simpson. She said she has no plans to get into the water again unless someone accompanies her.