Heather Barnes Survives 16 Hours at Sea After Being Swept Off Coast of Honduras

“The two islands were smaller than my thumbs.” Heather Barnes, an upcoming junior studying marine biology at New College of Florida in Sarasota, was drifting away with the current in the early Friday morning darkness that enveloped the small bay near Turtle Bay Eco Resort on the edge of the Honduran island of Cayos Cochinos. She had been lying in a hammock – restless – as she thought of the impending end of an amazing trip and a return to South Florida: her job, her studies, her normal life.