Concerned friends raised the alarm after she failed to return a rented boat
By GERARD COUZENS
Published: 09:07 BST, 26 June 2025 | Updated: 09:07 BST, 26 June 2025
This is the moment a missing British woman makes desperate help hand signals to a passing ship after being located following nearly five days adrift at sea with a huge search operation in place to find her.
Police and coastguards started hunting for Mary Gavin, 39, last Wednesday evening around 36 hours after she vanished on a rented boat she had hired a day earlier on the paradise island of Formentera.
She was rescued alive late Saturday afternoon after a ferry covering the route from the Majorcan capital Palma to the mainland east coast city of Valencia spotted her and raised the alarm.
Today one of the passengers on the boat that discovered the missing woman recalled the dramatic moment they neared her as she called out for help, saying: ‘She was dehydrated and sunburnt and had mouth sores.
‘The waves complicated the rescue.’
Alejandro Rosera told Majorcan media outlet Cronica Balear: ‘When we were about to pass by Formentera, we were told there was an emergency and we had to turn back.
‘Later on we saw a woman on board a small boat. ‘She had a life jacket on and another in her hand making gestures.
‘It took about 40 minutes to get her onto our ship. The movement of the waves made the rescue more difficult.
Mary Gavin vanished 36 hours after renting a boat on the island of island of Formentera
Incredible footage shows the moment she flagged down a passing ferry in a desperate attempt for help
‘She had mouth sores and you could tell she was dehydrated so she was given water and a Coca Cola.
‘Once we got to Valencia a large number of police and health professionals were waiting for her and assisted her immediately.’
News of the 5pm rescue on Saturday of the British woman, named locally last week as Mary Gavin, emerged on Sunday morning when police confirmed she had been taken to hospital in Valencia.
The vessel she had lost her way in, a cream-coloured Quicksilver 475 Axess with a Mercury outboard motor which she had hired from a rental firm at Formentera’s La Savina Port last Tuesday morning, was towed to Ibiza by coastguards.
Police divers had been incorporated into the search for her last Thursday after Civil Guard and Spanish coastguards helicopters and boats were mobilised.
Speaking on Sunday morning a Civil Guard spokesman said: ‘The British woman who vanished after renting a boat in Formentera on Tuesday morning has been found alive.’
The police force had said on Friday in its first official comments about the disappearance: ‘The missing woman is a 39-year-old British national who hired the boat in the port of La Savina in Formentera on Tuesday morning.
‘She was supposed to return it around 6pm on Wednesday and when she didn’t her friends became worried and raised the alarm.
The cream-coloured Quicksilver 475 Axess with a Mercury outboard motor was towed to Ibiza by costguards
The woman’s friends became concerned after she failed to return the boat
‘From the time she was reported missing on Wednesday evening a search operation was launched which continued throughout the day yesterday. She hasn’t been found yet nor has the boat she was on.
‘The Civil Guard’s Judicial Police unit has been investigating this woman’s disappearance but two vessels belonging to our Maritime Unit were mobilised yesterday along with one from the specialist sub-aquatic GEAS unit.
‘The officers from the Maritime Unit conduct the searches from speedboats and the GEAS are essentially diving specialists.’
A police source said last week the missing woman had been living on one of the Balearic islands for around two months, although it was not immediately clear if the island is Ibiza or Formentera.
No more details have been given out by local authorities about what they think went wrong and why the woman had ended up adrift and in difficulties.
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Incredible moment British woman desperately waves down passing ferry after FIVE DAYS adrift at sea in Spain
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