A sharp and sudden vertical blast of strong wind managed to knock the three-masted SV Concordia onto its side in a mere 15 seconds, something which forced the captain and about four dozen students to abandon the ship and ride out to deep seas for a total of two days, before they were rescued off Brazil’s Atlantic coast, as was shared by the survivors on Saturday.

At about 10:45 AM, on a Brazilian navy ship, at least 12 survivors, rescued off high seas, docked in Rio de Janeiro. More survivors were set to arrive later during the afternoon on two merchant vessels.

"We had been in the life raft for about 30 hours when we saw a search plane for the first time. That’s when we knew we were not alone and that help was on the way", said 16-year-old passenger Lauren Unsworth. A Dutch-Canadian, Lauren lives in Amsterdam.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has issued a statement thanking the Brazilian navy and merchant ships for their "swift and heroic response".