Little girl drifts half mile out to sea on inflatable unicorn, gets rescued by ferry

[Demovictory9]

https://nypost.com/2020/08/25/little-girl-drifts-out-to-sea-on-inflatable-unicorn/

The girl, about 4 or 5 years old, drifted for about a half-mile after escaping her parents’ attention.

When they realized their daughter was missing, the frantic couple informed port officials, who alerted the captain of the ferry Salaminomachos.

“I was approaching the port of Antirio and I was notified by the Port Authority that a child, who I did not expect to be so small, had been swept away by the currents on a nearby beach, which is near the port pier,” Capt. Grigoris Karnesis told the news outlet.

The skipper soon caught sight of the bobbing girl and steered his vessel to pluck her and the unicorn out of the water.

“She was frozen from her fear, because the current was very strong. I put the ship in such a position so as not to affect the small buoy,” Karnesis said.

“I placed it in such a way that the ship was not affected by ripples, because if the buoy sank we would have serious problems. We approached it slowly and we were able to rescue the child,” he continued.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

1. Glad that she's safe! And something similar happened...

... to my older brother long ago when he was about the same age! He was laying on an inflatable bed that was floating on the ocean during a trip to Florida, and fell asleep. He awoke to seeing the beach on the distant horizon! Luckily there were lifeguards who noticed his "speck" floating in the distance, looked through their binoculars to help identify it, and were already on their way. So he was only in a panic and crying for a few minutes before he saw a boat heading his way.

In today's world, my parents probably would've been charged multiple times for negligence! It's amazing how often they seemed to totally rely on us to stay close and not get ourselves killed!

[Demovictory9]

9. Scary. Glad it turned out well

[North Shore Chicago]

2. My gosh!

This little girl will have a great story to tell around the dining room table for the rest of her life.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. Indeed! My brother's story was often talked about...

... during family gatherings. Our parents (long deceased) claimed the he wasn't gone very long, in their minds, so they figured he was exploring the beach or whatever.

People weren't so concerned about abductions back in those days.

Edit: But they knew it was probably him when they noticed all the commotion from the lifeguards and realizing he'd been out of their sight for awhile.

[North Shore Chicago]

5. Safe endings are the best.

Glad he was okay, but how terrified he must have been!

[Sherman A1]

3. Happy that she is alright

[Akakoji]

6. Imagine

how incredibly cute it would be if they said she was rescued by a fairy! But they were probably looking after her.

[Scarsdale]

7. Amazing!

The parents must be so relieved and grateful. The crew worked together so well as a team. Poor kid, it is fortunate that she hung on.

[ArchTeryx]

8. They should give that ferry captain a commendation.

Pulling a boat that size next to a little kid on a float without so much as a wake disturbance was a fantastic bit of seamanship and I'm really glad that they effected a successful rescue of the little girl!

[dalton99a]

10. Full video at:

https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/08/25/hero-ferry-captain-saves-young-girl-floating-on-unicorn-buoy-near-rio-antirio-bridge/

[littlemissmartypants]

11. Remarkable! nt