Yacht sinking survivor: ‘I held my daughter with all my strength’

A British mother who survived a superyacht sinking off the coast of Sicily has described how she held her one-year-old daughter afloat above her head “with all her strength” to save her from drowning.
The woman, Charlotte Golunski, 36, told La Repubblica how she saved her daughter, Sophia, as the luxury yacht sank in a freak tornado off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday.
Four British tourists are feared to be among six people missing at sea. One person has been confirmed dead after 15 passengers on the yacht, the British-flagged Bayesian, were picked up by rescuers as helicopters scanned rough seas for the missing. The British technology tycoon Mike Lynch is among those missing, The Times understands.
• Bayesian yacht latest: Five bodies found in search of wreck
The 56m vessel, Bayesian, is owned by a company controlled by Lynch’s wife. It sank to the seabed, half a mile off the coast near Palermo.
“I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,” Golunski said.
“It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”
Italy’s fire brigade and coastguard said earlier that divers were searching for seven missing people, including four Britons, a Canadian and two Americans. It later reported that a dead body had been found.
A spokesman for Italy’s firefighting service told The Times that the body retrieved was found by divers in the water, close to the sunken vessel at a depth of about 50m. The spokesman added that it was unlikely more survivors would be found.
The yacht is owned by Revtom, a company registered on the Isle of Man. According to the latest company documents filed this April, Revtom’s legal owner is Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares.
Bacares is reportedly among the survivors of the disaster. Other survivors have been named by the Italian media as Sasha Murray, 29, from Ireland, the captain Matthew Griffith, 22, from France, James Caulfield, 51, from New Zealand, Ayla Ronald, 36, from London and Myin Kyaw Htun, 39, from Myanmar.
Lynch, 59, once known as “Britain’s Bill Gates”, was cleared of wire fraud in June after being extradited to the United States over the £8.6 billion sale of his software firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. He is believed to be worth around £500 million.
Bacares, 57, held a 3.6 per cent stake in Darktrace, a cybersecurity firm her husband helped to set up, which was sold in April for £4.1 billion.
A spokeswoman for the couple declined to comment.
Golunski said she, her daughter and partner James Emsilie had survived because they were on deck when the yacht sank. She had been woken by “thunder, lightning and waves that made our boat dance”.
She said: “It was the end of the world and my husband and I were struggling to stand up.”
As the yacht sank, the family were thrown into the water. “For two seconds I lost my daughter in the sea then quickly hugged her amid the fury of the waves,” she said.
“Many were shouting, and luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us were able to climb in,” she added.
All three members of the family were unharmed after they were rescued and taken to hospitals in Palermo for check-ups.
“We left London in a group of nine or ten with Sophia — all employees and collaborators of our software company. We were all guests of our boss, a good person, extraordinary, who they may not yet have saved,” she said.
She said that the group boarded the Bayesian with 12 crew, visiting the Eolian islands and Milazzo and Cefalu in Sicily before halting the voyage near Palermo to sit out bad weather, close to the port ofPorticello.
Corriere della Sera, the Italian newspaper, reported that as the danger grew, the captain of the yacht set off a flare to request help, to no avail.
Divers were said to be fixing cables between the yacht and the surface to allow easier descent as specialist divers able to enter the vessel headed to the scene. “The specialists are able to get into small spaces underwater,” a spokesman said.
Bayesian is said to have the world’s second-tallest mast and tallest aluminium mast at 75m (246ft). According to the leasing company Yacht Charter Fleet, the boat is furnished with a “Japanese-style” interior and designed to accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites, along with ten crew members.
It was given the award for best exterior styling at the 2009 World Superyacht Awards.
Monica Jensen, 48, who was chief stewardess on the Bayesian between 2018 and 2020, told The Times that the sinking would send shockwaves through the industry.
She said that during her time on board they had often encountered bad weather and that the crew would have been well-drilled for all eventualities.
“We sailed across the Atlantic several times and had been involved in several storms,” she said.
The Italian coastline attracts tourists on yachts and motor launches every summer including celebrities who moor at destinations including Portofino. This year Robert Di Niro and Madonna were among stars to have been spotted holidaying on yachts.
Small tornados at sea, often visible as water spouts, are increasingly common in the area as the water temperature of the Mediterranean heats up due to climate change.
“I was at home when the tornado struck”, Pietro Asciutto, a fisherman, told the Ansa news agency. “I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it just had one mast, it was really big. I saw it suddenly sink”.
Another witness said: “The boat was all lit up. Around 4.30am, it was no longer there. A beautiful boat where there was a party. A normal joyous vacation day at sea turned into tragedy.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said British officials were in contact with local authorities over the incident and were ready to provide consular support for Britons who were affected.