Agony for the location of the 28-year-old who has been missing since yesterday in Poseidi, Halkidiki off the sea, as it is slowly getting dark. At noon today his 30-year-old friend was found unharmed, while yesterday their 25-year-old friend was also found by a surfer who dived into the sea to help and held the young man until the coastguard approached.
It is significant that the 30-year-old was found 14 nautical miles from land. He was subsequently picked up by a Gibraltar-flagged ship that was nearby. For about 19 hours he struggled with the waves with his only hope being a ball that had also drifted out of the wind. The young man in his statements, although clearly overwhelmed by his adventure, said that the best birthday present was his rescue.
"We are very happy about the happy ending. The lad is in good health, quite dehydrated but he is fine," Kassandra mayor Mrs. Halkia told protothema.gr. "A moment ago he told me that he managed to survive thanks to a ball he found in the sea. He managed to hold on to the ball for 19 hours. He is a very strong and fit boy, smart and handled himself very well," she said.
The young man is very happy that he managed to set foot on land again and seems to be in very good health despite the great adventure he had. He even asked the mayor of Kassandra to take a souvenir photo with him to remember the moment.
It all started when three people during a birthday party on the beach decided to dive into the sea late yesterday afternoon. However, the strong wind and the currents of the sea swept the three young men into the open sea, leaving them unable to come ashore and out of sight of their friends.
The three friends from North Macedonia had visited Halkidiki for their holidays and on Saturday afternoon they wanted to have fun and swim at the well-known beach "Miti", in Posidi, as one of the young men was celebrating his birthday. Defying the very strong wind that reached 6 Beaufort and the big waves of the sea, they decided to dive into the water, and as a result they were swept away by the sea currents.
Some of the bathers on the beach noticed what happened, but everything happened in seconds and they did not have time to react. They immediately alerted the authorities and an alarm was raised to locate the three youngsters. Under the coordination of the Unified Search and Rescue Coordination Centre, a ship of the Coast Guard, a patrol vehicle, a helicopter of the Air Force, two private boats and volunteers of the Greek Rescue Team, arrived at the spot and started searches to locate and rescue the people.
"The spot is very dangerous so the people of the area never go there. There was a lot of surf and wind and at that point the currents of the two seas come together and it is very dangerous. The wave swept them in. One of the group was found with the help of a surfer who went into the sea to search and held him until the Coast Guard boat picked him up," Ms. Halkia said, stressing that once darkness falls it will be very difficult to continue the search.
Source: Proto Thema
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