Photo: Hellenic Coast Guard

Woman Lost at Sea in Greece for Three Days Survived on Boiled Candy

News
by Eben Diskin Nov 6, 2019

Kushila Stein, a 45-year-old woman from New Zealand, lived out her own unfortunate version of Survivor when she was lost at sea for nearly three days in a simple dinghy.

While helping sail a yacht from Turkey to Athens, she left the boat and rowed a dinghy to the nearby island of Folegandros, in order to “stretch her legs,” reported The Guardian. In a text message sent to her traveling companion, she claimed she was on her way back to the yacht, but then she lost control of the dinghy after an oar fell overboard and was sent adrift by strong winds.

Captain Giorgos Marietakis, the coastguard officer who headed the rescue mission, and his two-man crew were Stein’s last chance. In the last three days, seven boats, a helicopter, and a military plane had failed to find her.

Stein, an experienced sailor, and her dinghy were found 40 nautical miles (about 46 miles) south of Folegandros three days after she was reported missing.

According to Marietakis, Stein survived on boiled candies for food, of which only one was left when the coast guards found her. She had run out of freshwater.

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