‘Crying’ sailor survives one month at sea by licking plastic bags | World | News
Sato lost his mast in a storm, then his ordeal really began. (Image: Kai Sato)
A California man who found himself stranded on a sailboat in the Pacific Ocean for over a month has miraculously survived the ordeal after being discovered drifting off Hawaii.
Kai Sato, 39, departed from the Catalina Islands on June 7 as he attempted to complete his maiden solo voyage across the Pacific. However, he encountered a catastrophic setback merely two weeks into his expedition when his mast broke, leaving him adrift and helpless in the ocean.
Confronted with desperate circumstances, Sato remembered spending days in tears. “I cried for a whole week, just drifting south, like miserable,” Sato said.
The sailor’s situation appeared so hopeless that he even contemplated ending his own life. “I felt like I was going to just try to turn my motor on and just suffocate, to kill myself,” he said.
Sato tried to motor back towards shore, but his fuel ran out and the current started pulling him further from land.
“I was literally like a sitting duck, just getting taken south by the current going way off course,” he told Hawaii News Now.
Following five days of weighing up his options, Sato sprang into action as he started improvised repairs to his vessel using PVC pipes and kayak paddles.
The repairs proved helpful, yet it still took Sato a full month to navigate his way back into the shipping lane running from California to Hawaii. The voyage was thoroughly miserable.
By July 11, Sato had completely exhausted his water supply.
Sato survived by licking condensation and landing fish and squid (Image: World News Now)
He managed to survive by filling buckets with seawater and securing plastic bags over them to gather condensation. “I was just licking that to survive,” Sato said.
For sustenance, he subsisted primarily on oatmeal and fish and squid that landed in his boat. Sato revealed that he maintained his sanity throughout the solitary voyage by seeking guidance, meditating and conversing with the water and wind.
He recalled sensing the presence of his uncle, with whom he had sailed from California to Hawaii as a young boy. Then, last Tuesday, Sato’s prayers were finally answered when he spotted a Pasha Hawaii vessel.
The California man missing for over a month in the Pacific Ocean is suddenly found drifting off Hawaii (Image: World News Now)
The ship’s crew lowered a rope ladder to Sato, who climbed aboard, where he was promptly given a suite along with fresh clothing and an abundance of food.
Reflecting on the moment of his rescue, Sato said: “Oh my God, yeah, like ecstatic, you know what I mean? Like I was like crying and like so happy, and then they got me fruit and water, and yeah, they were so good to me, those guys.”
The harrowing ordeal has done nothing to dampen Sato’s passion for sailing. He is already plotting his next adventure, with ambitions to sail to the Philippines aboard a larger vessel.
