Pensioner who was hospitalised after trying to swim after her cruise ship was rescued from ocean
A pensioner from the Bristol area had to be rescued from the sea after she tried to swim after a cruise liner she thought her husband was on as it left port.
Susan Brown was pulled from the water around 12:20am on Sunday after struggling for three hours, around a third of a mile from the coast of Madeira.
The 65-year-old had believed her husband was on the ship - the Marco Polo - after she lost sight of him at the airport after an argument.
The pair had planned to cut their 31-day trip short by four days, and had booked flights to Bristol for the same day.
According to local media Mrs Brown had lost sight of husband Michael. But he was not on the ship as she thought.
He had in fact made their flight and has returned home to Bristol.
It is not known if he will fly back to the island of Madeira to see his wife in hospital.
Funchal port captain Felix Marques said Mrs Brown had been a passenger on board the Marco Polo.
He said: "She was 500 metres from the coast when fishermen heard her shouting.
"When they reached her she was clinging onto a handbag
she had been swimming with.
"The only version of Saturday night's events we have so far is that of the woman who was rescued from the sea.
"She said at the hospital when she arrived that she and her husband had cut short their trip after arriving in Madeira on Saturday and had gone to the airport to buy two plane tickets to fly back to the
UK▸ with easyJet that same day.
"It's still a bit unclear at the moment because we haven't had a proper chance to speak with her ourselves given her condition.
"But she's said she lost contact with her husband at some point while at the airport and jumped in the sea to try to reach the ship after seeing it in the distance as it left port because she assumed he had changed his mind and was back on board.
"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 died if she had not been rescued when she was."
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