New Zealand woman rescued off Greek island of Crete after two days at sea

ATHENS – Kushila Stein, 47, of Warkworth, New Zealand, “was helping transport a yacht from southern Turkey to Athens when she decided to take a dinghy ashore while it was anchored off the island of Folegandros last Friday [November 1],” the New Zealand Herald (NZH) reported.

“She messaged the yacht’s skipper, named only as Mike, to tell him she was returning to the Rival 34 sailboat but when she did not arrive within a few hours, he got worried and called the police,” Newsweek reported.

According to the report, Stein survived by eating candy during her 40 hours at sea after she lost an oar on the rubber dinghy she had taken and high winds pushed her further out to sea.

“Drawing on skills from her experience as a sailor, she used plastic bags to keep warm and relied on the sustenance of a packet of boiled sweets [hard candy] in her day pack,” Newsweek reporting adding that “she tried to alert overhead planes by pointing a mirror towards the sun, hoping that they would catch sight of the reflection.”

The search for Stein included “an underwater drone, helicopter and six coastguard vessels” Newsweek reported, adding that “when she was finally picked up, she was 55 nautical miles of Heraklion and 23 nautical miles south of Folegandros.”

Stein was “taken to Herakleion, treated for dehydration, and is expected to make a full recovery,” Newsweek reported.

Her mother, Wendy Stein, spoke with her after the adventure at sea and told Stuff that her first words were: “I still have one lolly [lollipop] left, mum,” Newsweek reported.

“She also told me she wrote down my name and number and attached to the dinghy so they would know who to contact if they found her and she was dead. 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,” she said, Newsweek reported.