All 10 people on the boat Dheraha are safe after it ran aground on a reef in the Maldives. It happened in the early hours of Sunday, 8 November 2026.
The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) runs the country's Coast Guard. It gave details of the rescue, the news site Raajje.mv reports. Nobody was hurt.
What happened
The Dheraha was going from Malé, the capital, to Thinadhoo. Thinadhoo is an island in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, in the far south of the country.
On the way, the boat ran onto a reef. The MNDF calls it the northern reef of Fenfushi island. The police name the reef Fenahutta, in Gaafu Alifu Atoll.
The police said the boat was sinking when the alarm came. The back of the boat was already under water, the Sun news site reports.
The alarm came at about 00:40 local time. A Coast Guard unit from the MNDF Southern Area Command went out at once.
There were 10 people on board: four Maldivians and six foreigners. At about 01:53, a Coast Guard harbour boat picked up seven of them from the Dheraha.
The other three had already left in a small dinghy. They reached a small island nearby. The Coast Guard boat picked them up there at about 02:10.
At about 04:22, all 10 moved to the boat Swift. The owner of the Dheraha had sent it to help.
The MNDF said work to refloat the Dheraha had started with the owner. The reports do not say why the boat hit the reef or what it was carrying.
In October, four crew were also rescued after a cargo boat ran aground and tipped over on a reef near Malé.
What crews can do to stay safe near reefs at night
Reefs in the Maldives are close to many shipping routes between the atolls. Most groundings can be avoided with good planning and a good lookout.
Plan the route before you sail. Mark reefs and shallow water on the chart. Keep a safe distance from them, more at night.
Do not trust one source of position. Check the GPS against radar, the echo sounder (depth finder) and what you can see.
Keep a proper lookout all the time, also with the autopilot on. A tired or sleepy watchkeeper is a big risk after midnight.
Slow down in narrow channels and near atoll passes. Currents there can push the boat off course.
If you hit a reef, call for help at once on VHF channel 16. Give the boat name, your position and the number of people on board.
Count everyone and put on lifejackets. Stay together. Only leave the boat if it is safer than staying on board.
If some people go in a dinghy or swim to land, tell the rescuers how many went and where. Rescuers then know who is missing.
Before each trip, tell the owner or your family the route and the time you expect to arrive. Emergency numbers are on Crewboard's useful links page.
Cover photo: A Maldivian Coast Guard patrol boat in Malé harbour, September 2021. Illustrative photo, not the boat used in this rescue. Photo: Subhashish Panigrahi/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped).
Sources: Raajje.mv: MNDF rescues crew from grounded vessel (8 Nov 2026), Sun (see.mv): All safely rescued after boat runs aground off uninhabited island in GA. Atoll (8 Nov 2026).
How we choose, write and correct our articles: editorial policy.
