A New Zealand teenager rescued from a Canadian sail ship that
sunk off the coast of Brazil last week has had emotional
reunion with her father and is on her way home.
Mei Barry, 17, was one of 64 aboard the three-masted SV
Concordia, which was full of high school and university
students on a 10-month educational trip around the world.
A distress signal was picked up from the vessel 5pm Thursday
local time, (8am Friday NZT) and a Brazilian Air Force plane
later spotted life rafts about 500km off the coast of Rio de
Janeiro.
Ms Barry said today that she was doing her homework when the
ship capsized.
"All I could see is the boat sails under the water and
everyone is trying to hop into a life jacket or emergency
suit," she told Radio New Zealand from Rio today.
She was pulled by a rope to where the life jackets were
stored and she remained huddled with others until the life
rafts were ready.
She had to endure a 41-hour wait on a lifeboat before she was
rescued.
The moment she saw rescue ships on the was "the happiest
moment of my life", said Ms Barry, formerly from Long Bay
College on Auckland's North Shore.
When she was pulled on board rescue boat, Ms Barry could not
feel her legs, so stumbled, crouched with others and cried.
"Thank God we're safe."
While she hoped she could continue the sailing experience at
another time, Ms Barry was pleased to be back on land and
with her father.
She will arrive back in New Zealand on Friday.
Her father Desmond, said he was proud of how his daughter had
handled the situation.
"She went away a girl and now I can call her a woman. Very,
very proud of her. Very proud of the way she's seeing this."
The ship had visited Europe and Africa since leaving Canada
in September, and had just begun a five-month semester
programme on leaving Recife in Brazil's northeast on February
8.
It was scheduled to dock yesterday Montevideo, Uruguay, then
head to several islands in the Atlantic and to southern
Africa and the Caribbean before returning to Canada.
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