Deptford Graduate Stranded at Sea, Rescued

Heather Barnes, a 2011 Deptford High School graduate, is counting her blessings after she was rescued Friday after facing 16 hours stranded at sea.

Barnes was conducting student research off the coast of Honduras, 6ABC reports, and had swam out to collect coral samples.

She cramped in her stomach and legs, Barnes posted on Facebook, and couldn't make it back after the currents pushed her farther out to sea. Barnes had to summon her strength to take action, she wrote: 

"I realize if I'm going to make it I have to swim back myself, so 16 hours after I had started, and many blisters and sunburn, jellyfish stings, and hallucinations from dehydration, I made it to Lion's Head on our island and collapsed on the shore where two locals carried me and gave me water and kayaked me back to the resort where people poured from every building and hugged and kissed me."

From there, she was able to call her mom, Jennifer Dukelow, in Woodbury to report she was OK, 6ABC wrote.

Barnes is recovering with a "sun-poisoned tomato face," she posted on Facebook, but is otherwise healthy.