A cruise vacation is supposed to be relaxing. Sun, food and shopping, all while someone else handles taking you to far-off beachy locations.

What these trips are not supposed to include are a near-death experience, a sea creature or starvation. While none of that leads to a calming experience, it does, however, make for a vacation story of epic proportion.

It all started innocently enough with a few drinks after winning an air guitar contest. A fun night on an otherwise normal vacation. James Grimes and his sister, along with 16 other family members, had left the Port of New Orleans and were headed to Cozumel, Mexico for Thanksgiving. But then Grimes went missing.

James Grimes fell overboard during a cruise. He spoke with reporters about his time spent trying to stay alive while waiting for rescue. Photo from YouTube.

At first his sister wasn’t worried. The 28-year-old had said he was going to the restroom, but when he didn’t return, she assumed he had just wandered off to explore the ship. However, the next morning, she couldn’t find Grimes. Panicked, she alerted the crew. They searched the entire ship, unable to find him, and soon called in the Coast Guard, suspecting her brother had gone overboard..

Grimes told ABC News, that while he had been drinking, he didn’t think that was the cause of his fall. But the moments with his sister were the last thing he remembered, and believed the fall off the ship knocked him out. 

“The next thing I know … I regained consciousness. I was in the water with no boat in sight,” he said.

I felt like I was given a chance right then… you’re alive for a reason… that [fall] could’ve killed me, but I felt like from that moment on, I was trying to stay positive.”

He continued, saying “and, you know when you’re here, you’re still alive for a reason. So, all you got to do now is swim and survive. I was hoping… they will start looking for me… they will find me eventually.”

Image of the moment James Grimes was spotted in the water by the coast guard. Photo by the U.S. Coast Guard.

During his 15-hour-ordeal, Grimes’ only source of nutrition was a stick he found floating near him. Believing it to be bamboo, he said he used that to chew on. He told ABC News that it calmed him to have something other than salt water. As the night grew darker, the water became cold.

As he battled waves, he says a ‘sea creature’ bumped into his body, scaring him. Worried it was a shark, Grimes kicked at the animal. “I thought it was a shark. I mean, I was swimming in one direction and looked around I seen it out the corner of my eye and it came up on me really quick and went under and I could see it and it wasn’t a shark,” he said. He finally saw that it was some sort of fish with a ‘flat mouth’.

Grimes said even as he began to feel weaker, he believed he would get out of this alive.

You know, the fall didn’t kill me, you know, sea creatures didn’t eat me, I felt like I was meant to get out of there,” he said. 

He wasn’t wrong. The Coast Guard had been searching for hours trying to locate the missing man. According to Richard Hoefle, a US Coast Guard Aviation Survival Technician, Grimes was ‘at his limit’ when they found him.

“Mr. Grimes had nothing left. He had no energy. He had nothing left to give. My best guess is that he had between a minute and 30 seconds left before we lost him completely,” Hoefle told 4WWL News.

The Coast Guard took Grimes to a hospital in New Orleans. He was treated for hypothermia and dehydration and is thrilled to be back on dry land.