An 18-year-old British girl has fallen to her death while cleaning a 60 metre-long schooner Germania Nova, which was berthed near Portland, Jamaica.

According to local newspaper Jamaica Observer, she was cleaning the mast of the vessel “when the ropes became undone and she fell onto the deck”.

A GoFundMe page set up to help her family says she “fell off the mast” of the yacht on Tuesday.

The GoFundMe page describes her as “a generous person” and “a ray of sunshine who brought laughter and music into the lives of those she met”.

The page, which has raised more than $12,185 for her family, says that the 18-year-old’s mother Sarah is in Trinidad, her father Dave is in the Netherlands and her brother Bryn is in Antigua.

Bethany had been sailing the world with her family on the sailing vessel CAPE since she was a child. They had sailed from their home in Wales to the Mediterranean, Africa, and the Caribbean. In Gambia, they did humanitarian work, and Bethany continued that tradition by participating in relief efforts for the Caribbean Island of Dominica.