The Greek coast guard on Saturday rescued a woman who had been adrift for 20 hours in the Ionian Sea after jumping off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, officials said.
Just after 10:30 a.m. on Friday, the captain of the cruise line’s Odyssey of the Seas alerted Greek rescue authorities that a 44-year-old Salvadoran woman had fallen overboard, said Theofanis Balatsoukas, a coast guard spokesman. The fall had happened about three hours before rescue officials were alerted and while the ship was sailing in international waters, about 70 nautical miles southwest of the Greek island of Zakynthos.
The woman later told her rescuers that she had jumped off the ship because she “wanted to disembark,” George Tsapras, another coast guard spokesman, said in an interview.
Greek officials launched a large-scale search-and-rescue operation with coast guard vessels, a Greek Air Force helicopter, nearby merchant ships and the Odyssey of the Seas itself.
A cargo vessel found the woman conscious and holding onto a life preserver just before 3 a.m. on Saturday. She had drifted about 10 nautical miles in the direction of Zakynthos.
The woman was picked up by a coast guard rescue vessel and brought to the port of Katakolo. A video released by the coast guard shows crews tossing a rope to a woman, who is seen floating inside a life preserver in the dark.
The woman was later taken by ambulance to a hospital for medical observation. A local prosecutor ordered her to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. The Katakolo Port Authority has launched an investigation into the incident.
Royal Caribbean did not respond to a series of questions, including why rescue officials were not alerted until three hours after the incident. According to the company’s website, the Odyssey of the Seas is over 1,100 feet long and can hold nearly 4,200 guests.
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