A 45-year-old woman from New Zealand survived almost two days adrift in the Aegean Sea thanks to a handful of candy and the strategic use of three plastic bags to keep herself warm and dry. She was rescued by the Greek Coast Guard 55 nautical miles north of Crete and some 24 nm from the island of Folegandros, where her adventure started.
According to reports, Stein, an experienced sailor, had been bringing a yacht from Turkey to Athens for a client when she decided to go ashore on Folegandros to stretch her legs and purchase some supplies. She lost an oar as she rowed back to the yacht and was pushed out to sea by strong winds.
The owner of the yacht reported her missing on Saturday, according to reports, prompting a large-scale search-and-rescue operation involving coast guard vessels and aircraft, a navy helicopter and civilian boats.
Kushila Stein’s mother, Wendy Stein, told New Zealand’s Stuff that the 45-year-old survived by eating a “handful of boiled lollies” and wrapping herself in plastic bags.
She also placed one of the bags, a red one, on her head during the day so she could be spotted by a passing boat or plane. She also wrote her mother’s name and telephone number on the hull of the dinghy so rescuers could contact her if she didn’t make it through her ordeal.
“She told me: ‘I did everything I could to survive.’ She has been trained in sea survival so is quite competent. I think that might have saved her life,” Wendy Stein told Stuff.
Kushila Stein was treated for exhaustion and dehydration at a hospital in Iraklio, Crete.
As a sailor myself, there is something about this story that sounds strange. She is reported to be ‘an experienced sailor’ and from the photos there is clearly one oar still attached to the dinghy. All ‘experienced’ sailors know how to scull (row a boat with one oar) – even an inexperienced sailor should be able to row a rubber dinghy with one oar. In that photo the oar she has is still clipped on to the outside of the boat, the usual storage position, and she doesn’t appear to have tried to use it at all!
She supposedly survived by ‘wrapping herself in plastic bags’ so where are they in the photo here? Especially the ‘red one that she placed on her head’?
She has allegedly ‘been trained in sea survival’ (as I have) so where is her life jacket? Why was she not carrying some form of communication (mobile phone, hand-held VHF radio)? Her sea survival course would have instructed her to always do both.
As ‘experienced’ sailors both she and the skipper should have known to agree a specific time of return and the skipper should have alerted SAR services as soon as that time passed, not go to bed and wait until the next morning.
If three were strong offshore winds forecast or even expected, and all ‘experienced sailors’ know that this part of the Aegean is often affected by strong winds, usually northerly, then she should not have not even attempted to row ashore at all.
Far from being ‘experienced sailors’ this lady and her skipper look like rank amateurs. Either that or this is not all it seems…..