A Seminole man is being treated for cuts and scrapes after he fell from a cruise ship near the Sunshine Skyway bridge early Monday morning.
U.S. Coast Guard officials say 47-year-old Larry Miller was rescued by the captain of a pilot boat. Pilot boats guide large vessels through the Tampa Bay area.
Miller was found clinging to a buoy near the mouth of Tampa Bay. Captain Jeff Hilliard received a radio call from the pilot of another another boat who had just spotted a man standing on the buoy.
Hilliard motored up to the buoy and rescued Miller. He said Miller told him that after he fell off the cruise ship Carnival Inspiration, he had been hit by a passing boat, then managed to climb onto a marker buoy near the Sunshine Skyway.
Hilliard says his past work as a paramedic helped him give some basic first aid to Miller, who had scrapes and cuts on his body.
Hilliard took Miller to the pier at Mullet Key in Fort DeSoto, where emergency workers took him to a hospital.
A statement from Carnival Cruise Lines said Miller fell after trying to get a better look at a pilot boat coming alongside the Carnival Inspiration as it returned to Tampa after a four-day cruise.
The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating, but a spokesman said the agency does not suspect foul play.
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