Relative to the water, the person is moving north at 4.1 m/s and east at 12 m/s. This means these are the two components of its velocity (we can think north as y-direction and east as x-direction), so the angle between the direction of its velocity with respect to the water is given by
[tex]\tan \alpha = \frac{4.1 m/s}{12 m/s}=0.34 [/tex]
from which
[tex]\alpha =18.9^{\circ}[/tex]
in the north-east direction.
