Vouliagmeni: four rescued from a drifting boat

A Coast Guard patrol boat picked up four people aboard a small boat in the Saronic Gulf, following an incident on the afternoon of Friday, 15 August 2026 that became known on Sunday, 16 August. According to the Coast Guard’s announcement, the Saronic Port Authority was notified of a request for assistance to a boat in distress in the sea area west of the Asteras Vouliagmenis bay. The vessel had already begun drifting due to waves, as strong winds were blowing in the area.

The patrol boat that rushed to the scene located the boat drifting two nautical miles northwest of the Flevon islets, quite far from the point where it had initially been reported. The four people on board, Romanian nationals, were picked up and taken safely to Vouliagmeni marina, in good health and without needing medical care. The 2nd Vouliagmeni Port Police Station, under the Saronic Port Authority, imposed the prescribed administrative sanctions on them. It is noted that the service’s announcement refers to a rowing boat, while the description of the sighting refers to it as an inflatable, with the exact type of vessel not clarified.

The Saronic Gulf attracts a large number of small pleasure craft every summer, especially around the mid-August holiday, when traffic at southern Attica’s beaches peaks. The area around the Flevon islets, a cluster of uninhabited islets off Vouliagmeni, is exposed to the northerly winds that blow intermittently with force, making the use of boats without engine power or adequate equipment dangerous. During the same period, winds in Attica were locally reaching seven on the Beaufort scale in the east, conditions that also hampered firefighting operations on Salamina the following day.

Administrative sanctions in such cases are usually linked to the use of a vessel without the required safety equipment or beyond the permitted distance limits from the coast. The Coast Guard repeats every summer its recommendation to swimmers and users of small boats to check the weather forecast before going out to sea and to avoid moving away from the coast when strong winds are forecast. Dozens of similar incidents are recorded at Attica’s port police stations every August, most of them ending without injuries when the alert is raised in time.