As the boat she was travelling on rapidly took on water, she watched on in awe as her daughter, Kietah, leapt to the rescue of those on board. 

"Kietah was a hero," she said.

"If it wasn't for her, the boat would have sunk."

Ms Martens-Shaw, from Wagga, took a holiday to Daydream Island to visit Kietah who works as an events planner there. The mother and daughter were treating themselves to a cruise around the islands when they were involved in a dramatic mid-water emergency.

The pipe in the engine room in the boat had burst causing it to break down in the middle of the Whitsunday's "Unsafe Passage" - a spot notorious for sharks. Waves were battering the vessel while it sunk from the engine room down.

As the captain and deckhand rushed to fix the engine, Kietah took the wheel of the boat and ordered the nine other people on board to sit at the back, lifting the hull in the air.

"The captain issued a call over the radio and said 'mayday, mayday we've got 10 minutes until we sink'," Kietah said.

"The boat was going with the waves ... if a wave came on, we couldn't do anything about it."

With the weather taking a turn for the worst, the boat's steering controls eventually locked up, preventing any chance of steering out of trouble.

"We ended up bailing water out of the boat. Anything we could find we chucked over," Kietah said.

After a two hour aerial and water search, police located the boat via its emergency signal and it was towed back to land.

"I think everyone was very shaken up and a lot of people were in shock," Kietah said.

"I was in go mode but later that night I had a shower and realised the severity of the situation."

Ms Martens-Shaw said the misadventure on the high seas was a story to tell.

"I was trying to be positive with all the younger ones," she said.

"I told them that they would be telling their children and their grandchildren about this."

Kietah sustained a torn ligament in a finger as well as a black eye. Ms Martens-Shaw had bruising on her left leg.