The ship “Prevelis” with 190 passengers grounded at about 4 o’ clock in the morning on Saturday outside Santorini island. Specifically the ship leaned on the rocky islet Aspronisi opposite Akrotiri, Santorini , about two miles away from coast .

There was no inflow of seawater in the ship but, the 190 passengers – including children – wore life jackets and moved to the deck for precautionary reasons. During the night the crew did not attempt to unstick the ship using their own means.

About 40 minutes after the grounding, vessels from Santorini arrived next to the ship to assist in transferring the 190 passengers, if needed. Then a Coast Guard vessel and a small passenger ship approached the rocky islet Aspronisi.

With the first light of day, at about 06:00 in the morning, specialists begun checking the ship for damages. A private diver checked if the grounding had caused a breach in the ship which might be dangerous for the passengers and the crew.

At around 6:40 on Saturday morning the “Prevelis” ship got unstuck from the rocky islet and slow began to sail towards the Santorini port, where it arrived shortly after 07:00 in order to examine the extent of the damage.

There, 112 of the passengers decided to stop their journey at Thera while 78 others decided to continue when the ship will get the ” green light” by the specialists. The Italian classification society, Rina, is expected to check the ship and determine whether the ship is seaworthy .

The passenger ship sailed from the port of Piraeus at 18:00 pm on Friday and the scheduled route was Piraeus – Milos – Santorini – Anafi -Heraklion – Sitia – Kasos – Karpathos -Diafani – Halki and Rhodes.

Besides the 190 passengers, 32 trucks, 19 cars, 2 buses and 6 motorcycles were also on board.

The ship grounded on the rocky islet Aspronisi shortly before entering the port of Santorini under still unclarified circumstances.

Photos: George Constantinou, a volunteer doctor – Group “Simplefasi” (+πλευση). The group sails across the islands of Cyclades.