A family with children lost a big inflatable ball on the beach. A week later, the boys’ mother was watching TV and found out that their ball swam as much as 80 miles and saved the man on the high seas for 18 hours.
In July, a tourist from Macedonia, Ivan Drago, was vacationing on the coast of the island of Kassandra in Greece.
A strong wave swept him into the sea. The man stayed on the water, but could not overcome the ebb current.
Soon Ivan was in the open sea. Eyewitnesses reported the incident to rescuers.
At some point, a colored inflatable ball floated by.
“It was half blown away, but still helped me to stay on the water for these difficult 18 hours,” Ivan later told the press.
The missing Macedonian was found by the coast guard.
The story of this was widely covered by local journalists. Thus, it was seen on TV by the mother of the boys who lost the ball on the island of Lemnos. That is, 80 miles from the place of rescue of the tourist.
It looks like it was carried to the right place by a strong current.
The woman called the TV channel and said that she recognized the toy: her children, 11-year-old Tryphon and six-year-old Thanos, missed the ball by accident and were very happy that they could help a stranger in such a strange and unpleasant situation.
A small accident helped the man to hold out. Such coincidences are, of course, extremely rare.