In a dramatic rescue, 39-year-old British woman Mary Gavin was found alive on Saturday, June 21, after nearly five days adrift at sea, following her disappearance from the idyllic island of Formentera.
Gavin, who had been living in the Balearic Islands for around just two months, rented the cream-coloured Quicksilver 475 Axess motorboat from Helix Charter Formentera at La Savina port on Tuesday, June 17, intending a brief but solo coastal excursion.
Describing it as a “quick boat ride”, she set off alone at 6.30pm without specifying her route. When she failed to return by 6pm Wednesday, her friends alerted authorities, triggering an extensive search operation across sea, land, and air.
Finding British woman cast adrift like finding needle in haystack
The Spanish Coastguard, Guardia Civil, supported by a Red Cross vessel and a Helimer 222 helicopter, began scouring the waters around Formentera and Ibiza. Police divers from the GEAS unit inspected coastal areas, while maritime units patrolled with speedboats. The lack of a predefined route and the boat’s limited autonomy, coupled with no radio signals or sightings, made the search like finding “a needle in a haystack”, according to authorities. As days passed without trace, media coverage intensified, and concerns grew over possible accidents or mechanical failure.
On Saturday at approximately 5pm, a ferry en route from Palma, Mallorca, to Valencia spotted Gavin’s boat 23 nautical miles north of Ibiza. One passenger described her waving desperately with a life jacket, appearing to be dehydrated, sunburnt, and with mouth sores. The 40-minute rescue was hampered by waves, but Gavin was safely pulled aboard the ferry, given water and Coca-Cola, and taken to a Valencia hospital for treatment. Her condition remains unclear.
Authorities said there were exceptional weather conditions that day but have not determined how Mary Gavin drifted so far. It is supposed that currents dragged her out to sea for many miles. Her boat was towed by Salvamento Marítimo to Ibiza.
