Sailor girl saves 9 puppies, swims 75 metres to shore

9:44 AM Thu 19 Nov 2009 GMT

'Laura - a strong swimmer' .

When British university student Laura Hughes set off for a sailing holiday in Turkey after completing her Master of Arts at the University of Westminster, it seemed a good idea to take her two rottweiler dogs, Ragga Muffin and Tiger Lily, with her for company.

But she could never have imagined the outcome.

She had purchased a yacht, Csavargo, and set off to sail the Turkish coast. Later her friend John Cochrane, joined her. Then Ragga Muffin gave birth to nine puppies.

Nine damp but happy Rottweilers - photo by Kett’s News Service - .. .

She had been sailing for several months, and all was going well until this week. During a severe storm, with gale force winds and five metre seas, a line from the boat became caught around the propeller. Thus left engine-less, they were unable to sail the boat against the strong winds, which were propelling the yacht at 2.3knots into a shipping lane.

Laura added: 'It was when we got into the shipping lane that I really started to become concerned.'

They called a distress signal on their VHF radio, but the Greek tugboat which arrived demanded 10,000 Euros for the rescue, an amount that Laura could not pay.

Lalyssos - where John Cochrane surprised German tourist by appearing out of the sea with two Rottweilers - .. .

So the two decided there was nothing to do but abandon ship. Laura donned a life jacket, put the nine puppies into a milk crate from the deck of her yacht, and jumped overboard. Balancing the milk crate on her head and steadying it with one hand, she used the other hand for swimming towards the shore. It was a 75 metre swim, but she made it.

'I swallowed a lot of sea water when I was swimming but my main concern was to keep my puppies safe. A few of them were a bit damp and their little legs were sticking out of the crate but they seemed to be none the worse for their adventure,' she told reporters later.

Csavargo - missed the ships, snugged up to a sandbank - photo by Kett’s News Service - .. .

In the meantime, John Cochrane struck out in another direction with the two adult dogs, and after swimming 100 metres, reached the Greek tourist resort of Lalissos, where startled German tourists alerted the emergency services.

It is understood that the British Embassy kindly arranged a hotel for the night, a local Greek police station took care of the family of dogs, and the local emergency services found Csavargo, having missed all the ships in the busy shipping lane, snugged up to a sand bank.

by .Sail-World Cruising Round-up

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