A 39-year-old California man was found alive near Hawaii after drifting in the Pacific Ocean for more than a month following a sailboat accident.
Kai Sato left Catalina Island on June 7, planning a solo crossing of the Pacific.
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Two weeks into the journey, his sailboat's mast snapped, he ran out of fuel, and his phone died, leaving him stranded outside shipping lanes.
Sato described feeling hopeless and isolated. "I cried for a whole week, just drifting south, like miserable.
I felt like I was going to just try to turn my motor on and just suffocate, to kill myself," he told Hawaii News Now.
After five days of despair, Sato improvised repairs using PVC pipes and kayak paddles to jerry-rig his sails.
He survived mainly on oatmeal, fish, and squid that landed on his boat, and drank condensation collected from seawater.
"I was just licking that to survive," he said.
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It took nearly a month for Sato to navigate back to the shipping lanes between California and Hawaii.
On July 11, he ran out of fresh water and began collecting condensation from seawater to stay hydrated.
His rescue occurred when a Pasha Hawaii container ship spotted him. The crew made two attempts to lower a rope ladder before Sato was safely brought aboard.
"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," Sato said.
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Now safe in Hawaii, Sato is staying with a relative and plans to continue his sailing journey to the Philippines aboard a larger vessel.
