Man Jumps Off Carnival Glory; Rescued 8 Hours Later

Man leaps from cruise ship; saved 8 hours later

His sister was preparing a funeral. The Coast Guard was embarking on a rescue.

Michael Mankamyer was 30 miles off Fort Lauderdale treading water in choppy seas.

About eight hours earlier, the 35-year-old Orlando, Fla., man had jumped from a cruise ship balcony - rescue officials were at a loss to say why, though they reported a witness said he was drunk. But salvation came at 8:45 a.m., when a lookout on the Coast Guard cutter Chandeleur, Petty Officer Ryan Coon, spotted Mankamyer in the fresh sunrise about 75 yards away.

An MRI technician at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Mankamyer was on the final leg of a week-long Caribbean cruise with his 16-year-old godson, Salvie Wega of Orlando, aboard Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Glory. They were scheduled to return to Port Canaveral Saturday.

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