KEY POINTS:
A pregnant New Zealand woman thrown from a boat which capsized off Malaysia was initially trapped under the boat but managed to swim to safety, her parents say.
Kimberley Chin-Poy, formerly of Tauranga, now lives in Sydney with her husband.
She was one of 10 people rescued after the boat with 11 people on board went down on Tuesday between Libaran Island and Sandakan on the east coast of Sabah state on the island of Borneo.
Seven tourists and three locals were rescued from the choppy waters, and one local woman died.
Mrs Chin-Poy's father, Dennis Dobson, said his daughter was recovering well from the frightening ordeal.
Mrs Chin-Poy was holidaying in Malaysia and Borneo with two friends. A boat trip to an island to look at turtles turned into turmoil when the vessel capsized. Mr Dobson said his daughter told him the captain took off out into the open sea past a point and some big waves swamped the boat and tipped it over.
The concerned parents first got a phone call from their son-in-law in Sydney to say there had been "a huge problem", then later heard from their daughter when she managed to borrow a cellphone.
"What had happened was the boat had flipped and she ended up underneath it, and was in a bit of an air pocket for a while until she could work out where to go and then she dived underneath the boat and swam out into the open sea."
She emerged to find about seven people hanging on to the side of the boat. Another boat saw what had happened and came to help, but could take only three people.
"They pulled her on the first boat because she's pregnant," Mr Dobson said.
The concerned parents were very relieved to hear their daughter's voice after the initial shock.
"The main thing was we knew she was safe."
Mr Dobson said his daughter had a damaged hand but was otherwise unscathed.
"We just got a call a little while ago to say she'd had a medical check up and the baby's well, and there's no problems."
Mr Dobson said his daughter and her friends were good swimmers. They lost their bags so had no money, passports or cellphones, but the Australian Embassy was arranging temporary papers for them.
Mrs Chin-Poy was due back in Sydney today.
- NZPA
