<p>Sarah Calascione, 19, Nicole Turner, 18, and Gabriella Haines, 16, were among 41 students and 23 crew aboard the SV Concordia, a 57-metre long sailing ship which capsized in bad weather off the coast of Rio de Janeiro last Wednesday.<br />They scrambled for lifeboats and spent 40 hours in torrential rain and surging waves before being rescued by the Brazilian navy, which has been criticised over the rescue operation.<br /><br />“I didn’t think we were going to be rescued. It was horrible,” said Calascione, who joined the ship, which set sail from Canada last September, two weeks ago. “The radio equipment was damaged so we only had an EPIRB (distress beacon) which sends out a satellite signal, but that was not picked up straight away. It was not until 30 hours later that a spotter plane saw our life raft.”<br /><br />The ship’s operators, the Nova Scotia-based West Island College International, said they were waiting for details of the rescue response. “We really do not have the answers as to why different decisions were made with the Brazilian rescue or with the navy at various times,” the college president, Nigel McCarthy, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. ‘SV Concordia’ capsized during a microburst — a rare and sudden downdraft of air in a small area — on Wednesday afternoon, about 300 miles off Brazil.<br />A spokeswoman for the Brazilian navy, Maria Padilha, said naval responders received a distress signal about 10pm local time on Wednesday and tried to make radio contact with the vessel.<br /><br />They also communicated with nearby ships and aircraft to see if they could spot anything wrong in the area, she said.<br /><br />But it was not until late the next day that a spotter aircraft located the life rafts.<br />The sail ship left Recife in north-east Brazil on February 8 and was sailing to Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, where it was due to arrive on February 25, as part of a 10-month voyage. <br /><br />The vessel had already visited Ireland, the Mediterranean and north-west Africa.<br />The Canadian college’s class afloat programme offers school and university credits for students embarking on a long voyage, visiting 30 ports in at least 20 countries. The trip costs £25,000 each.<br /><br />The ship’s captain, William Curry, said the Concordia’s crew had prepared a day beforehand for what they anticipated would be rough but not unusual weather. He was below deck when the ship suddenly keeled — which was normal. But it was when it keeled a second time that he knew the vessel was in great danger.<br />A Brazilian naval ship took about 10 students back to shore on Saturday with the rest arriving on merchant vessels.<br /><br />Edgardo Ybranez, captain of the Philippine flagged cargo ship that rescued 44 people, said everyone from the Concordia was unhurt except for the doctor, who suffered an injury before the rescue “but he is OK now.”</p>
<p>Sarah Calascione, 19, Nicole Turner, 18, and Gabriella Haines, 16, were among 41 students and 23 crew aboard the SV Concordia, a 57-metre long sailing ship which capsized in bad weather off the coast of Rio de Janeiro last Wednesday.<br />They scrambled for lifeboats and spent 40 hours in torrential rain and surging waves before being rescued by the Brazilian navy, which has been criticised over the rescue operation.<br /><br />“I didn’t think we were going to be rescued. It was horrible,” said Calascione, who joined the ship, which set sail from Canada last September, two weeks ago. “The radio equipment was damaged so we only had an EPIRB (distress beacon) which sends out a satellite signal, but that was not picked up straight away. It was not until 30 hours later that a spotter plane saw our life raft.”<br /><br />The ship’s operators, the Nova Scotia-based West Island College International, said they were waiting for details of the rescue response. “We really do not have the answers as to why different decisions were made with the Brazilian rescue or with the navy at various times,” the college president, Nigel McCarthy, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. ‘SV Concordia’ capsized during a microburst — a rare and sudden downdraft of air in a small area — on Wednesday afternoon, about 300 miles off Brazil.<br />A spokeswoman for the Brazilian navy, Maria Padilha, said naval responders received a distress signal about 10pm local time on Wednesday and tried to make radio contact with the vessel.<br /><br />They also communicated with nearby ships and aircraft to see if they could spot anything wrong in the area, she said.<br /><br />But it was not until late the next day that a spotter aircraft located the life rafts.<br />The sail ship left Recife in north-east Brazil on February 8 and was sailing to Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital, where it was due to arrive on February 25, as part of a 10-month voyage. <br /><br />The vessel had already visited Ireland, the Mediterranean and north-west Africa.<br />The Canadian college’s class afloat programme offers school and university credits for students embarking on a long voyage, visiting 30 ports in at least 20 countries. The trip costs £25,000 each.<br /><br />The ship’s captain, William Curry, said the Concordia’s crew had prepared a day beforehand for what they anticipated would be rough but not unusual weather. He was below deck when the ship suddenly keeled — which was normal. But it was when it keeled a second time that he knew the vessel was in great danger.<br />A Brazilian naval ship took about 10 students back to shore on Saturday with the rest arriving on merchant vessels.<br /><br />Edgardo Ybranez, captain of the Philippine flagged cargo ship that rescued 44 people, said everyone from the Concordia was unhurt except for the doctor, who suffered an injury before the rescue “but he is OK now.”</p>
