A mother has told of how she kept her one-year-old daughter alive in the sea after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.
Charlotte Golunski, 38, a senior associate at Invoke, Mike Lynch’s venture capital firm, fought to prevent her child, Sophie, from drowning.
The Oxford graduate was among guests on board the Bayesian to celebrate Mr Lynch’s acquittal in an $11 billion (£8.5billion) fraud case in June.
On Sunday at about 5am the superyacht started to sink after being hit by a tornado.
As the screams of passengers and crew broke out all around her as they were thrown into the water, Ms Golunksi kept her grip on her baby to stop her from slipping beneath the waves.
She told La Republicca: “I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.
“It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”
Ms Golunski told another newspaper, Giornale Di Sicilia: “For two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately held her again in the fury of the waves.
“I held her tightly, tightly to me, while the sea was raging. So many were screaming. Fortunately, the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on it.”
While she and her daughter were treated at the Giovanni di Cristina children’s hospital, her husband, James, was taken to Civico Hospital in Palermo after suffering bruises to his limbs and chest.
Speaking from the hospital, she said she “can still hear her little girl crying in her ears as they floated in the waves and their holiday sailing boat sank”. She said she was amazed that the child, who had just turned one, had emerged from the water unscathed.
Ms Golunski reportedly suffered “a graze on her chest that required a few stitches”.
She reportedly phoned her husband, James, who is being treated for bruises to his limbs and chest.
According to Republicca, as soon as she phoned her partner he asked: “How is the little girl? Is she there with you?”
They were all due to be discharged from hospital on Monday afternoon and will be reunited at a hotel in the Sicilian capital.
Dr Domenico Cipolla, head of the emergency room at the children’s hospital, said: “She [Charlotte] told me that while they were sleeping, at a certain point the yacht overturned due to the tornado and they found themselves in the water.
“Some of them immediately managed to get onto the lifeboat. And some, evidently, didn’t make it.
“She told me that she was in the water for no more than two or three seconds, and she managed to save the baby, to keep her arms up, and then, with the others, they were able to get on the lifeboat, and then, I think, they were rescued by the coast guard.
“They are all in good condition. We managed to get the parents to talk on the phone, all the doctors and nurses were all very moved, also because the little girl is fine, the prognosis is good and we are carrying out tests just to be careful.”
