Ferryboat rescues little girl with unicorn floaty alone in the open sea

Photo: Youtube

29 August 2020 2:16pm

When a little girl, aged three, played in the sea at the town of Antirrio in the Peloponnese on Monday, a gust of wind blew her out to the open sea.

She clung onto her flotation device, a little unicorn, alone.

Greek ferryboat captain Grigoris Karnesis, 50, spotted the girl. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

Without thinking, the captain of the ferry Salaminomachos brought his boat alongside the girl and rescued her as she screamed in the open seas.

Mr Karnesis managed to steer the huge vessel close enough to the child for someone to grab her and had to also ensure that the unicorn would not get caught up in the backwash of the ship’s engine.

He steered around the girl and lowered the ramp at the back of the ferry, used to load cars, so that his brother Vasilis Karnesis was able to scoot to the edge and snatch the young girl, saving her life.

Passenger Petros Kirtsonis, 45, captured the rescue on video and it soon went viral with newspapers around the world documenting the manoeuvre. Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis congratulated the captain and thanked him and the crew for their brilliant seamanship.

The parents were grateful but declined to respond to the multitude of interview requests after receiving fierce criticism for letting the girl out of their sight.

The girl’s family told the captain that they had tried to swim to the girl but were unable to reach her. Poeple at the sea had grabbed a nearby dinghy and tried to row out to her but the current was too strong.

Greek authorities had reached out to Mr Karnesis as his ferry was the closest to the scene. By the time he arrived, the girl had been floating for around 20 minutes.