The Black Sea off Ukraine.
The Black Sea off Ukraine. Elena Pleskevich/CC BY 2.0

Earlier this month, Mykhailo Doroshenko, a 19-year-old Ukrainian lifeguard, had just finished his shift on the shores of the Black Sea in Lazurne, Ukraine, when he spotted an inflatable trampoline on the beach that someone had left behind. He decided to use it for a nap. When he woke up, he was in open water, far from the shore.

The current had swept Doroshenko out to sea, and he later said that any thoughts of a quick rescue vanished on the second day, when he started to panic.

“I didn’t think it was funny any more,” Doroshenko told the Russian broadcaster Ren TV, according to the BBC. “I started crying, I was in shock, and tried to cover myself from the sun as best I could.”

On the third day, he washed ashore in Russia-controlled Crimea, dehydrated and with sun stroke but generally all right.

“Don’t worry, mum. I’ll be home soon, whole and unharmed. And I’ll think twice before I do things in the future,” Doroshenko told Russian media, according to The Times.

Which is good news, because the open sea is a very scary place.