THE PAIR OF cousins, rescued off the Galway Coast last month after hours at sea afloat on paddleboards, have spoken of their gratitude to everyone who searched for them.
From singing Taylor Swift to praying and even managing to sleep, the 23-year-old Sara Feeney and 17-year-old Ellen Glynn described how they survived at sea during an appearance on the Late Late Show last night.
The pair were found off Inis Oirr after they were swept out while paddle boarding on Furbo Beach one evening in August.
The search and miraculous rescue captured the attention of the country, with the intuition of the two women praised.
Sara and Ellen thanked the RNLI and all the people who had helped in the search.
“After it got dark and no one had found us yet, we realised the situation was a bit more precarious,” Sara said.
However, they insisted on keeping spirits high during the ordeal – focusing on tying the boards together and attaching them to the buoys from a lobster pot.
“You don’t want to be having a conversation that was any way panic-inducing,” Sara recalled.
'We were thinking happy thoughts.' Cousins Ellen Glynn and Sara Feeney say they did not talk about what could go wrong while stranded at sea off the coast of Galway last month | https://t.co/GAaP6ohEDs pic.twitter.com/5fJKafODQG
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 4, 2020
Ellen Glynn said that the focus was “thinking happy thoughts”.
They also recalled praying. “I think I was nearly shouting out my prayers,” Ellen said.
“It’s crazy that we’re alive and we’re so lucky to be here,” she said.
Fisherman Patrick Oliver and his son Morgan found the two women, who had been at sea for 15 hours.
“We found them, but they saved themselves,” Patrick said.
He said that they fact they managed to survive “with that rain and all that northerly wind” was remarkable.
“When you’re out fishing in that kind of weather, it’s not easy,” he said.
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