Call it a miracle, serendipity, or just good luck, but two stranded Costa Rican fishermen were rescued by the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Empress of the Seas after the ship was rerouted because of a storm. If the ship had continued on its planned course, it would have missed the stranded sailors.

The fishermen were near death after 20 days adrift. They had set out from Costa Rica on December 1, but had been run out of fuel after strong winds had separated them from their nets. They had a week’s supply of food and water aboard which they depleted almost two weeks before the rescue. One of the rescued fishermen was so weak that he could no longer walk and had to be carried from the Empress of the Seas‘ tender to the ship.   

NPR reports that the Empress of the Seas was originally destined for Cienfuegos, Cuba. But landing in Cienfuegos would have required them to disembark via tenders, small boats that shuttle passengers to land. Concerned about the strong winds, the crew altered its course to a port hundreds of kilometers away in Ochos Rios, Jamaica, where it could dock at a pier.

Halfway between Grand Cayman and Jamaica, in the evening, the crew spotted a light off the ship’s starboard side. 

James Van Fleet, chief meteorologist for Royal Caribbean, wrote in a tweet, “I don’t know about you, but I’ve already seen a Christmas Miracle.”