PALIN MITENK BLOG

By Sophie Borland

Sarah and her two companions donned immersion suits before clambering into lifeboats


A teenage girl was left clinging to a life raft for nearly two days after her ship sank in high seas.

Sarah Calascione, 19, and two friends were on a round-the-world trip when their sailing vessel overturned in a gale in the Atlantic 300 miles south of Rio de Janeiro.

The 48 passengers and 16 crew managed to scramble on to tiny rafts as their ship, the Concordia, filled with water.

They remained drifting for more than 40 hours as towering waves and heavy rain lashed down, before finally being rescued by a Brazilian Naval frigate.

Yesterday, Miss Calascione told of her ordeal as the Concordia sank on Wednesday.

She said: 'The wall became the floor and then the power went off and the engine alarm went off and I could hear things crashing and breaking.



A photographer takes pictures of the Canadian tall ship SV Concordia as it sails into Halifax, Nova Scotia, last year


'I fell through the door and just fell into [my] room. The door was above my head and I couldn't reach it to get out.'

After a few minutes a female crew member heard her cries for help and pulled her out.

'I wasn't injured except for my back,' she added.

'I didn't think we were going to be rescued. The radio equipment was damaged so we only had an EPIRB (satellite tracking system) which sends out a satellite signal but that wasn't picked up straight away.


Harrowing: Sarah Calascione endured 40 hours in the ocean before being rescued


Rescued: Gap year student Sarah Calascione, 19, who survived on a lifeboat in the open sea for nearly two days after her ship sank off Brazil


'It wasn't until 30 hours later that a spotter plane saw our liferaft.'

It then took several further hours for boats to arrive and rescue them.

Miss Calascione, who is on a gap year after leaving Tiffin Girls' School in Kingston, South-West London last year, was travelling with friends Nicole Turner, 18, and Gabriella Haines, 16.

They were two weeks into the five-month adventure - which cost £25,000 - when disaster struck. In her whole time in the sea she ate just one biscuit bar and drank only water from the raft's roof.

Her mother Caroline, 48, a painter, and father Jonathan, also 48, a partner in a consultancy firm, only learned their daughter was missing on Friday morning when they were contacted to say there had been an 'emergency situation'.

Mrs Calascione, who lives in Kingston and also has a younger daughter, Hannah, 15, said: 'We were told there had been a distress signal and spotter planes and navy boats had been deployed but there was no sign of the Concordia.

'It was a very harrowing and emotional experience. It wasn't until we received a phone call from Sarah on Saturday that we knew she was safe.'

The three girls flew home to London yesterday and were reunited with their families.

Incredibly, all onboard the ship escaped with minor bumps and bruises. The Concordia's American captain, William Curry, 59, said he had never seen anything like it.


Students from Canada's West Island College, arrive at the Mocangue naval base in Rio de Janeiro at the weekend after being plucked from the sea


Tragic: The Concordia sank off the coast of Rio


He blamed a 'microburst' - a sudden-vertical downdraft of air - for the conditions. The entire surface area of the sails was exposed to the powerful wind and within 15 seconds the boat went from sailing normally to lying on its side and beginning to sink.

The round-the-world trip, called Class Afloat, is run by Canadian company West College International. Teenagers learn how to sail the 190ft three-masted vessel and study for a qualification.


Back on dry land: Two of the rescued students disembark from a Brazilian navy vessel at the weekend


There are now questions about why the Brazilian navy took so long to respond. The navy has defended its actions, saying it followed standard procedure


source: dailymail