A man's first attempt to sail solo across the Pacific turned out to be "miserable," leaving him stranded on his sailboat for more than 30 days. Californian Kai Sato, 39, left the Catalina Islands on June 7, only to see his mast snap about two weeks later. Out of fuel after trying to motor back, Sato drifted south, far off course. His phone, which he used for navigation, got wet and shut off. "I cried for a whole week," he told Hawaii News Now, adding that he briefly considered ending his life.
Instead, after several days of misery, he improvised repairs, using PVC pipes and kayak paddles to jury-rig a sail and inch back toward a busy shipping lane. The journey took about a month. Food was mostly oatmeal and sea life that landed on the boat; water ran out July 11, forcing him to collect condensation from seawater in plastic bags and "just lick that to survive."
Sato says he meditated, talked to the wind and waves, and drew strength from memories of an uncle who once sailed the same route with him. He was finally spotted Tuesday by a Pasha Hawaii cargo ship; its crew pulled him aboard on a rope ladder, fed and clothed him, and gave him a cabin. Photos from the rescue showed extensive damage to his vessel, with "sails floating in the ocean," per the New York Post. Now recovering with relatives in Hawaii, Sato is already plotting another ocean crossing—this time to the Philippines, and on a larger boat.
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