Cruise ship fall: Woman rescued after 10 hours in sea off Croatia

A British woman has survived after falling from a cruise ship off the coast of Croatia, the country's coastguard has said.

Officials said the 46-year-old was rescued 10 hours after falling into the Adriatic Sea - 60 miles offshore - around midnight on Saturday.

The woman - named by newspapers as Kay Longstaff - was taken to hospital in the town of Pula.

She told reporters she fell off the back and was "very lucky to be alive".

Speaking to Croatian news channel HRT after stepping off the coastguard patrol boat the Cavtat, she added: "I was in the water for 10 hours, so these wonderful guys rescued me."

She was then taken to hospital in an ambulance.

The rescue vessel's captain, Lovro Oreskovic, said she was found on Sunday "exhausted", adding: "We were extremely happy for saving a human life."

According to the Sun Ms Longstaff told one rescuer it had helped that she was fit from doing yoga and that she sang to stop her feeling cold overnight.

David Radas, from the Croatian Ministry of Maritime Affairs, said rescuers were able to work out the exact moment Ms Longstaff fell in the water by checking the cruise ship's CCTV.

"Because they knew the time, they were able to know the exact position of the ship," he told the paper.

He told the BBC the circumstances around how she fell into the sea were being investigated.

Ms Longstaff was spotted in the sea around one mile from where she fell.

A statement from Norwegian Cruise Line confirmed that a guest had gone overboard while the ship was on its way from Vargarola to Venice.

It said: "We are pleased to advise that the guest was found alive, is currently in stable condition, and has been taken ashore in Croatia for further treatment.

"We are very happy that the individual, who is a UK resident, is now safe and will soon be reunited with friends and family."

The Foreign Office confirmed it had been notified of the incident.

How to survive for 10 hours in the water

Professor Mike Tipton, an expert on surviving extreme environments, says the woman in this case had a "perfect" survival situation with warm, calm water.

"The water temperature would have been about 28-29C which is a little bit warmer than a swimming pool," he says, meaning she would not have have suffered cold water shock.

And the fact she "wasn't being battered by waves" meant she could float, swim and stay near to the spot where she fell in to maximise her chance of being rescued.

Other factors which impact your chance of survival:

If you are female, you will typically have a higher percentage of body fat which helps with floating and keeping warm
Conserving energy by floating on your back rather than swimming, according to the RNLI
A calm, positive mental attitude, Prof Tipton says, can help someone endure a long period of survival