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More Carnival drama when cruise ship rescues sailor

Carnival Paradise. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A Carnival cruise ship has come to the rescue — again. This time, their ship rescued a Mexican sailor whose boat was sinking off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. 

The Paradise was heading to its home port in Tampa on Saturday when it responded to a distress call from a small boat, 13 miles north of Cozumel, Cruise Hive reported.

The cruise ship then dispatched a lifeboat to fetch the fisherman and brought him back to the vessel. He was given food, water and medical treatment and taken back to land by the Mexican Coast Guard.

The 70,300-ton cruise ship, which has a capacity of 2,100 people, was on a four-day cruise and had departed Tampa on Thursday.

It was the Carnival company’s second dramatic rescue recently. Last month, the Carnival Fantasy rescued two dozen Cubans who had been stuck on the Gulf of Mexico for several days.

The crew had joined forces with the U.S. Coast Guard to save the group who had boarded a wooden boat to Mexico. They were initially rescued by a man who took them aboard his sports fishing boat, but after its engines malfunctioned, the group drifted for three more days.

The cruise ship took the people on board about 130 nautical miles off Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

Meanwhile, video footage has emerged of a passenger on board another Carnival ship, the Carnival Fascination, jumping overboard intentionally. The ship had a scheduled call in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on May 19 when the man was seen swimming in the water and shouting out.

The crew of the cruise ship lowered a lifeboat into the water, bringing the 19-year-old man aboard 45 minutes later, Cruise Hive reported.

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