Sailor rescued after more than a month adrift in Pacific

A California sailor has been rescued after spending more than a month adrift in the Pacific when his sailboat’s mast snapped during a solo voyage to Hawaii.

Kai Sato left California’s Catalina Islands on 7 June, attempting his first solo Pacific crossing. Around two weeks into the voyage, his mast broke, leaving him unable to sail as planned.

Speaking to Hawaii News Now, Sato says there was a psychological toll to being stranded and watching his boat drift south.

“I cried for a whole week, just drifting south . . . miserable,” he says. “I felt like I was going to just try to turn my motor on and just suffocate, to kill myself.”

Improvising repairs and drinking water

After five days, Sato began improvising repairs, using PVC pipes and kayak paddles to jerry-rig the damaged sailing vessel.

The makeshift repairs eventually helped him regain some control, but the voyage remained a survival exercise. Sato ran out of drinking water on 11 July and began collecting condensation from seawater using buckets and plastic bags.

“I was just licking that to survive,” he says.

His food was similarly limited. He survived largely on leftover oatmeal, along with fish and squid that seemingly landed aboard the boat.

Sato says it took him almost a month to make his way back towards the shipping lane between California and Hawaii.

Saved by a container ship

His ordeal ended on 21 July when a Pasha Hawaii container ship came into view.

The crew made two attempts to lower a rope ladder before Sato was able to climb aboard. He was then given food, water and clothes, and provided with accommodation on the vessel.

“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,” he says.

Sato is now staying with relatives in Hawaii. Despite the experience, he reportedly plans to undertake another long-distance voyage, with the Philippines as his next destination, this time aboard a larger vessel.