A British mum rescued from the sinking Bayesian superyacht has described the terrifying moment she momentarily lost her one-year-old daughter in the “furious” waves.
The vessel was docked off the coast of Porticello, in the Sicilian city of Palermo, when a freak storm hit the area early Monday morning.
Witnesses said a “whirlwind” struck at around 5am, wrecking The Bayesian and causing the vessel – which had 22 people on board – to rapidly sink.
Fifteen of the people on the boat were rescued by a nearby boat, including the one-year-old and her parents, the Coast Guard said.
Speaking to Italian media, Charlotte Golunski, 36, said: “For two seconds I lost my baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves.”
She says she managed to hold the infant afloat “with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,” she added.
“It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”
15 of the passengers managed to scramble onto an inflatable lifeboat, before being picked up by another vessel.
The infant was unharmed and is with her mum in hospital, where she was treated for a minor shoulder injury. The Brit said the the ordeal as ‘terrible’, detailing how ‘in a few minutes the boat was hit by a very strong wind and sank shortly after.’
Details about exactly what happened are still emerging, with divers continuing the search for six missing tourists in the wreck, which is 160ft underwater.
Rescuers tragically found one body near the wreck earlier today, which is yet to be identified. It’s feared more could have lost their lives in the catasrophic incident.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, the owner of the superyacht, remains missing while his wife Angela Bacares, 57, was rescued. A frantic search operation is ongoing for five more missing tourists.
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