Many epic stories, when looked at closely, have a quixotic air. This Monday shocked Barcelona miraculous discovery of a woman who went swimming in Barceloneta and was dragged by the sea. After about 8 hours in the water, she appeared alive and in a fairly good psychological and physical state given the situation, at a distance of 4.4 miles from the coast, the equivalent of about seven kilometers. She was found by a large merchant ship waiting her turn to dock. However, told by its protagonists, the scene has more of a comedy vise than an action movie.
And it is that the woman’s shrieks were initially mistaken for the squawk of a seagullvery common bird on the Mediterranean coast and that can become very noisy. The captain of the ship and the deckhand who spotted her tell ‘El Periódico de Catalunya’ how the events unfolded.
“Yes, it was our boat that found a woman in the water last Monday, September 5 at dawn & rdquor ;, confirms Edgar Molde, the captain of the Medi Sydneya bulk carrier –bulk carrierin the jargon of the sector – 229 meters long and built in 2015. It is still in the Catalan capital, sails under the Panamanian flag and is consigned by the Barcelona company Alfaship Maritime Services. Molde is of Filipino origin and speaks English, like deckhand Jibars, who was the one who first saw the missing girl making distress signals.
“We heard a voice, we did not know where it came from and we thought it was a seagull & rdquor ;, acknowledges the captain synthetically. The captain was on the bridge, he says, while the sailor Jibars was holding a steering wheel. Apparently the woman called them with a shout similar to a “Hey, hey & rdquor;, but the usual presence of seagulls confused them. “The first time it seemed to me the voice of a seagull. It kept repeating so I thought it was just a big bird. It was night, it was dark. I went to the stern and heard the same sound again & rdquor ;, she recalls.
The surprise came when The sailor began to imitate the squawk with his voice: “He answered me with the same sound!”. “It was then that I doubted that it was a seagull and when I looked at the water I recognized some hands waving about 100 meters away of our position & rdquor ;, he points out. Indeed, there was a woman in the water and the crew couldn’t believe it.
A lifesaver and wait
“We yelled at him to get closer to the ship, in English, and when he was close enough we threw him a life preserver so he could stop swimming and rest& rdquor ;, exposes. Jibars assures that the swimmer “seemed very tired already & rdquor ;, since she was very far from the coastline. However, she showed integrity and clear ideas: “She told us that she was fine and that she had swum for many hours & rdquor ;. “Also asked to inform his parents that he was fine& rdquor ;, adds the ship’s worker.
Already clinging to the float, the protagonist had to wait in the water for the Port Pilot boat to arrive to get her out of the sea. She could not get on the merchant ship, since climbing that high or lifting it with a rope would have been unfeasible. The wait lasted only 15 minutes, according to the captain, but for her the minutes seemed eternal: “We explained to him that the rescue would arrive shortly and he was very happy, but after a few minutes he doubted and asked if he was really coming & rdquor ;. To calm her down and distract her as much as possible, a group of sailors entertained her by giving her a conversation, although they hardly understood each other: “We also asked her name and place of birth, to entertain her, but we did not understand what she was saying.”
The captain had already experienced a rescue on the high seas
Related news
The captain, Edgar Molde, made a move as soon as he was aware of the discovery. He called the Port to report the discovery, ordered a life preserver to be thrown at the woman and ordered to monitor her until the Pilots arrived: “I asked 3 or 4 employees not to lose sight of her, to maintain eye contact at all times & rdquor ;. And it is that Molde had already experienced a similar case in his life: “It’s not the first time I’ve rescued someone from the water, I did it many years ago when I was in charge of a passenger ship in the Caribbean & rdquor;. “I had experience but on the high seas, not so close to a port! & Rdquor ;, she relativizes.
Eventually the Pilots arrived and were able to complete the rescue. The woman had spent about 8 hours in the sea, since she entered the water at 8:00 p.m. on the beach of Sant Miquel de la Barceloneta. The Hospital del Mar treated her and kept her under medical observation, but finally discharged her on the same Monday after verifying that she did not suffer from hypothermia or any other symptoms attributable to such a risky journey. A tragic and comic story at the same time, but with a happy ending.