How did Kay Longstaff survive 10 hours at sea after falling overboard?

The British tourist was rescued after falling from a cruise ship into the AdriaticIf you are going to fall from a cruise ship into open water, there are worse places to do so than the Adriatic Sea at the height of summer. The temperature of the stretch of water that separates Italy from the Balkan peninsula is above 20C (68F) in August and minimal wind means that the sea tends to be calm.Kay Longstaff said she fell from an aft deck on the Venice-bound Norwegian Star around midnight on Saturday and spent 10 hours in the water before she was found and pulled to safety. Had it been another time of year, or a different body of water, the story may have ended very differently. "The two big factors with falling into water are the temperature and the sea state, and they compound each other," said Prof Mike Tipton, an expert in sea survival at the University of Portsmouth. Continue reading...