A woman who fell overboard unseen by her partner has survived the ordeal thanks to her waterproof mobile phone
A woman, who fell overboard from a motor boat earlier this year, survived her life-threatening ordeal thanks to two things – a lifejacket and her mobile phone.
Rachael Perrin and her partner Mike Burge were en route from Portsmouth to Cherbourg when the accident happened off the south coast of the Isle of Wight on 23 May. Rachael fell overboard unseen after feeling seasick due to the rough sea conditions. Mike, who was helming at the time, failed to hear her cries for help over the sound of the boat’s engines and the noise of the wind and waves.
Thankfully she was wearing a lifejacket at the time and had her mobile phone in a waterproof case around her neck. The former auto-inflated and kept her head above the water, while the latter enabled her to call 999. Luckily she was close enough to shore to get a signal and could help pinpoint her location by advising what ships she could see nearby.
The emergency services alerted HM Coastguard, which instigated an immediate search and rescue operation. She made the call at 13.45 and was eventually spotted and recovered by a rescue helicopter at around 15.50, thanks to the bright yellow colour of her lifejacket bladder. Despite this swift response, she was still in the water for over two hours.
“If I did not have my phone, I think the length of time I would have been in the water would have led to hypothermia and that would very probably have killed me,” said a thankful-to-be-alive, Rachael Perrin.
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