A just-certified California sailing enthusiast rescued a woman who was about to drown after she was swept out to sea and stranded naked in 66-degree water for 12 hours when he spotted her hand while observing a pod of dolphins.
On September 26, Khosrow 'Koz' Khosravani, 60, and a group of friends planned to sail from Marina Del Rey to Paradise Cove in Malibu on his boat, the SV Defiant.
On their trip, Khosravani, a former lecturer at UCLA in information technology, spotted a pod of dolphins and decided to go off route to get closer to the mammals.
However, that's when he noticed something unusual.
'I saw a hand,' he said. 'If it wasn't for the dolphins, I would have never seen this lady, who only had a few minutes to live.'
After 12 hours stuck at sea off the coast of Marina Del Rey, an unidentified woman was saved last month by sailor Khosrow Khosravani (left and right) who happened to spot her hand while marveling at a pod of dolphins
At the start of the trip, Khosravani, who had become a certified sailor weeks earlier after taking courses through the American Sailing Association, taught everyone on board what to do in case of an emergency.
'I told them these things will never happen but it's good to know,' he told KTLA. 'Well, 30 minutes later, they needed all the training.'
After coming close to the unidentified woman, Khosravani threw out a floatation device but then realized she was too weak to use it. So he tossed her a buoy with a 70-foot cord.
Five minutes later, after a second attempt, he managed to get the young woman to come close to the side of the boat before pulling her aboard. Khosravani said she was naked, exhausted and could barely speak.
He wrapped the barely conscious and freezing woman in a blanket.
'I asked her if she is alone or if there are other people we should look for,' Khosravani recounts. 'She could barely say her first name and she said
