A British holidaymaker has been rescued from the sea off Madeira after attempting to swim to her cruise liner after it had left port.
Susan Brown, a 65-year-old, had an argument with her husband over whether to cut short their luxury cruise holiday and later told hospital staff that she had jumped into the water to swim to her cruise ship as she thought her husband had changed his mind over their plan to abort their holiday and that he was on board the Marco Polo.
Police said that Mrs Brown claimed that she and her husband had bought airline tickets to return to the UK on Saturday after leaving the cruise ship when it stopped in Madeira.
Mrs Brown said she jumped into the sea after losing sight of her husband at Funchal airport and assumed he had returned to the ship.
Local police confirmed her husband Michael, 69, had not gone back to the Marco Polo but have yet to say whether he went back to the UK by air.
Susan Brown is in a hospital psychiatric unit after receiving treatment for advanced hypothermia.
The port captain, Felix Marques, said “She was very lucky to survive. She was in the water for more than three hours and was suffering from the effects of hypothermia when she was rescued by fishermen who heard her cries for help around 12.20am on Sunday.
“All she had on her was the clothes she was wearing and a handbag which she was clinging to. She could easily have died if she had not been rescued when she was."
Marques added, “The British holidaymaker was found around 500 metres off the coast of Santa Cruz which is near the airport. That’s where we understand she entered the water. It’s close to the airport but she would have had to have taken a taxi to get there.”
The Marco Polos’s operating company, Cruise & Maritime Voyages, understood that Mr Brown was back in the UK and that both had decided to return early by air. The make of Mrs Brown's handbag is not yet known.
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