Teen shipwrecked off Brazilian coast

Mei Barry. Photo / Supplied

An Auckland teenager who spent 18 hours clinging to a liferaft off the coast of Brazil after her ship capsized was delirious by the time she was rescued, her father said last night.

Mei Rose Barry, 17, had been on a 10-month educational trip aboard the SV Concordia when the vessel struck a fierce storm 500km from Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

The Canadian tall ship sank within minutes and the 64 passengers frantically boarded emergency life boats in near-dark conditions.

The 48 students and 16 teachers from a sailing school spent nearly a day adrift in shark-plagued waters before being rescued.

Mei's father Desmond Barry said conditions on the life rafts had been desperate as survivors waited for help to arrive.

"People were pretty frantic, pretty sick and dehydrated; by the time the rescuers arrived they had blurred vision," he said.

"I think if a big ship goes down in seas like that, a life raft is only there to keep you alive."

He and wife Yoshiko spent an agonising few hours not knowing what had happened to their daughter after being told the ship had sunk on Friday.

"Five hours of not knowing isn't easy for anyone. It's been a pretty sleepless night."

He said Mei, a former Long Bay College student, had never been sailing before setting out on the Class Afloat programme with the West Island College International in Canada.

She was terrified of going on the trip as she was afraid of meeting new people, he said.

"As we got closer and closer she became more and more anxious and just uncomfortable," he said. "It was being with people she doesn't know, being in an environment totally foreign to what she was used to.

"It's a strange thing for teenagers sharing a cabin with people she didn't know. This has taken her out of her comfort zone, I admire her for that."

He was due to fly out to Rio de Janeiro tonight to be reunited with his daughter.

The Concordia left the Brazil on February 8 and had been scheduled to arrive in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Tuesday. But it ran into trouble about 9am Friday New Zealand time and sent out distress signals, which were picked up by the Brazilian Navy.

Three hours later an aircraft spotted liferafts in the ocean and the passengers, mostly from Canada, were plucked from the water by three passing container ships.

Despite the ordeal Barry said he had no regrets over suggesting Mei travel on the Concordia.

"The last thing I want is for her hopes and dreams to be flattened and for her to lose confidence. If she wanted to jump back on a boat I wouldn't hesitate."