‘I’ve still got one lolly left, Mum’
Kiwi woman rescued in Aegean Sea after drifting for 37 hours
‘Istill have one lolly left, Mum.” They were the first words Kushila Stein shouted through the phone to her relieved mother, Wendy, after she was rescued from floating on the Aegean Sea in Greece for 37 hours.
The 47-year-old Warkworth woman had been helping a British man sail his yacht from southern Turkey to Athens in Greece.
They were three weeks into the trip and moored near the Greek island of Folegandros when she decided to row the dinghy 50m ashore and walk to the highest point of the mountain.
She texted him at 4.30pm on Friday to say her phone battery was low and she was heading back, but on her return she lost an oar overboard and the winds pushed the boat away from the Rival 34 yacht.
When she hadn’t returned by 5am the next day the British yachtsman went looking for her. When he found no sign of Stein or the dinghy he raised the alarm at 8am.
A search and rescue operation with six Coastguard boats, a helicopter and plane was launched at 11am.
Wendy Stein told the Herald last night that her daughter had lost her oar trying to row back to the yacht and winds had pushed her off course.
She said Kushila was an experienced sailor and had trained others in sea survival so tried everything she knew to keep herself alive.
After her first night lost at sea, she wrung out her socks and draped them on the boat to dry so she could put them on at night when it got cold.
Kushila had no water, but digging into her day pack she found a handful of boiled lollies which she rationed out during the hours she was adrift.
She also unearthed three plastic shopping bags which she wrapped her hands and other parts of her in
at night
to keep warm. During the day she wore a red one about her head to attract attention. Another was tied to her remaining oar so she could wave it at passing planes like a flag.
She also pointed the small mirror she kept in her backpack at the sun to try to attract the attention of any planes that flew over.
In case she wasn’t found alive, she wrote her mother’s name and phone number on the side of the boat.
By the time Wendy found out from a friend in Britain that Kushila was missing, her daughter had been floating in the Aegean Sea for 14 hours.
The search stopped at nightfall on Saturday and resumed the next morning. But Wendy said she was optimistic her daughter would be found. She knew Kushila would never leave the dinghy of her own accord and that searchers would keep looking for at least 72 hours.
The search had been going a few hours on the second day when Wendy received a call from the yacht’s owner saying the Coastguard wanted to speak with her.
She took the phone and was told her daughter was “found and alive”. Kushila was located 55 nautical miles off the north of Crete on Sunday morning. Wendy whooped with relief. They later learned Kushila had been picked up by the Coastguard and had been able to walk to the boat.
A short time later, Wendy received another call from an unknown number. This time it was an ecstatic Kushila, who yelled down the phone that she still had one of her lollies left in case she had to spend a third night on the water before she was found.
After being given the all clear at a hospital, Kushila was discharged and took a ferry to Santorini to meet a friend who had arrived from Britain to help lead the search.
Wendy had planned to travel over on Wednesday to relieve him. But now her daughter was safe and well she said she was waiting to see whether Kushila would continue on with her travels before returning home in mid-December.