The captain of a crab boat helped pull the woman from the water. Mike Ricketts says he's not hero, just someone who always keeps an eye out for anything suspicious.
In this case, that something was a 45-year-old woman from San Diego clinging to a deflated dingy about a mile and a half off Lovers Point in Pacific Grove. The Coast Guard says she left from the Monterey wharf.
The Coast Guard says the woman went out in the motorized, inflatable boat to watch the sunset Tuesday. At some point, the boat started to lose air, the motor fell off and it got very foggy-- not to mention dark and cold. She shot off a few flares, but no one saw them. Some 15 hours later, Ricketts and his crew spotted her, called 911 and tried to get her out of the water. They say she was soaking wet.
Ultimately the coast guard got her out of the water and Monterey firefighters brought her to shore. That was just before 9:30 yesterday morning. Rescuers say the life jacket she was wearing likely saved her life. Authorities say details of the woman's ordeal are still a little fuzzy, because of her condition.
She's being treated for hypothermia. Her name has not been released.
