By Charlie Charalambous
TWO BRITISH tourists were rescued by a Cyprus police helicopter yesterday after spending the night in a cave when their speed-boat was wrecked on the rocky Akamas coast.
Glyn Carpenter, 35, has been hailed a hero by local police for saving his student girlfriend Cassandra Kennel, 19, before the boat went down.
The British couple are from Hastings where Carpenter is a builder and Kennel a computer student.
Their planned cruise around the remote Akamas peninsula turned into a nightmare on Monday when their boat ran out of fuel and was driven against the rocks by choppy seas.
“We were very scared but I managed to get my girlfriend to shore, then the boat split in two and I went into the water,” Carpenter told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
“The waves spun me around and somehow I ended up on the shore.”
But he said at one point he thought the couple would not survive.
“I didn’t think we were going to make it because the waves came crashing down.
“At one stage I just kept thinking of the Titanic because I couldn’t save the boat and the sea was very rough.”
Paphos police launched a search on Monday when the couple failed to return to shore after renting a speed-boat at lunchtime.
A safe rescue was possible only because the couple never gave up and stayed alert even though stranded in a desolate area, said the police.
“Because the boat had no fuel and was out of control it ran aground on the rocks. Later, after continued efforts by the English holidaymakers, they were located and rescued by police helicopter Akritas,” said a police announcement yesterday.
Carpenter and Kennel were rescued at 6.20am yesterday after spending most of the night in a cave miles from the nearest village.
“We were very cold and suffering from shock,” said Carpenter.
A police helicopter located the couple after Carpenter tied a life jacket to an oar and waved for help, in the Yeronissos area, north of Lara bay.
They were ferried to Paphos General Hospital for treatment, but were found to be unhurt and released.
The initial police sea-and-air search had failed to locate them by midnight on Monday.
The tourists, staying at the small Paphos village of Lysos, had rented a boat from nearby Latchi and the owner raised the alarm when they did not return by 7pm on Monday.
