The meltemi and Greek ferry sailing bans

The meltemi is the seasonal northerly wind of the Aegean summer. This page sets out what the Greek authorities publish about the wind and about the bans that hold ships, each from the authority's own page and dated to when we read it.

What HNMS publishes about the meltemi

The Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS, emy.gr) describes the wind on its English-language page on the climate of Greece. As read on September 25, 2026, that page says warm-period high temperatures are dampened by sea breezes on the coasts and "from the north winds blowing mainly in Aegean, well known as 'Etesian'."

"Etesian" is the term HNMS uses in English, and meltemi is the Greek name for the same northerly. The climate page gives no month of onset, no typical force and no duration, so the record does not hold those figures from HNMS.

How the HNMS sea-area forecast states wind force

The HNMS marine page divides Greek waters into named sea areas. As read on September 25, 2026, the list includes Northeast Aegean, Northwest Aegean, Central Aegean, Southwest Aegean, Southeast Aegean, Ikario, Kafireas Strait, Saronikos and South Evvoikos, alongside the Ionian and Cretan areas.

The shipping forecast on the same page is a bulletin for METAREA III, which the page defines as the Mediterranean and Black Seas east of the Straits of Gibraltar plus a block of Atlantic water. The bulletin read on September 25, 2026 was headed FQME22 LGAT and issued from Athens for 0400 UTC that day.

Its header states the unit outright: "WIND SPEED: BEAUFORT SCALE". The same header carries a standing caution that wind gusts "can be 40 percent stronger than those given here" and that maximum wave height can reach twice the significant height.

The bulletin runs in parts. Part 1 is warnings, which read "NONE" on September 25, 2026, and Part 2 is the general synopsis of pressure systems.

The marine page also links to the Coast Guard's Navtex service, the radio-telex channel for maritime safety broadcasts. The page does not say which sea area covers which island, so the record does not hold a mapping from Naxos or Tinos to a named area.

Who issues a sailing ban

In Greek the ban is an apagorefsi apoplou, a prohibition on departure. The Hellenic Coast Guard's own news section carries items headlined with that phrase, among them one headed "Απαγόρευση απόπλου πλοίων στον Πειραιά", a departure ban on ships at Piraeus.

The Coast Guard's pages at hcg.gr refused our requests on September 25, 2026, so the text of those items did not load. The record holds the headline and not the decision behind it: it does not hold which officer signs a ban, whether Coast Guard headquarters or the local port authority issues it, or how long a ban runs.

Wind thresholds by vessel type

The regulation that sets a wind-force limit for passenger ferries was not among the pages we could read. The record does not hold a Beaufort threshold for conventional ferries, for high-speed craft or for any other passenger vessel, and this page claims none.

The Coast Guard's regulation library does publish Beaufort limits for smaller craft. General Port Regulation No. 20, approved by Ministerial Decision 3131.1/03/1999 (Government Gazette B 444, April 26, 1999) and posted on edla.hcg.gr in an unofficial consolidation, covers speedboats and "other marine recreation craft."

Article 32 of that regulation prohibits renting out marine recreation craft when the wind exceeds five Beaufort or 38 kilometers per hour, or when visibility is restricted. The same article requires rental operators to keep a portable digital anemometer on site and to apply its reading to that limit.

Article 13 prohibits windsurfing when the wind exceeds seven Beaufort or 61 kilometers per hour, and before sunrise and after sunset. Neither article applies to ferries, and neither figure is a ferry threshold.

Where a ban is announced

The Coast Guard's news items are one public place a departure ban appears, as the Piraeus headline shows. The Single Maritime Window at mnsw.hcg.gr carries a page titled "Arrivals & Departures of Ships"; whether it flags a ban, the record does not hold.

Operators' own departure boards were not read for this page. The record does not hold how any ferry operator marks a sailing held by a ban.

What the record's own crossings show

The site made a sea trip to Tinos for one evening in July 2024 and left Naxos by boat in July 2025. Both crossings are logged in ferries and island-hopping, which sets out how the site moved between the islands.

The record holds no delay and no cancellation on either crossing. It holds no crossing under a ban, and it does not hold the Beaufort force on either day.

Two sailings in two Julys are not a sample of the meltemi. They establish that those two boats left, and nothing about any other boat.

Where the wind bears on the rest of the plan

Naxos and Tinos are the two islands of the Cyclades in the record. Their pages cover what the site found on each island; neither page holds a wind reading.

The trade between a boat and a domestic flight is set out in flying vs ferries. This page covers only the maritime side, and the record does not hold a weather limit for flights.

Piraeus is the port named in the Coast Guard headline above. The Piraeus port gates page covers its gates and layout, and the rest of the site's planning explainers sit under the planning hub.