A California man who survived more than a month stranded on a sailboat in the Pacific Ocean was found drifting off Hawaii. Kai Sato, 39, left the Catalina Islands on June 7 for his first solo voyage across the Pacific. Two weeks into the trip, his mast broke, leaving him adrift.
Sato spent a week crying
“I cried for a whole week, just drifting south, like miserable,” Sato said. He considered ending his life: “I felt like I was going to just try to turn my motor on and just suffocate, to kill myself.”
He tried to motor back to shore but ran out of fuel, and the current pulled him farther away. “I was literally like a sitting duck, just getting taken south by the current going way off course,” he told Hawaii News Now.
Improvised repairs and survival tactics
After five days of deliberation, Sato used PVC pipes and kayak paddles to repair his vessel. The repairs helped, but it took him a full month to reach the shipping lane between California and Hawaii.
By July 11, he had exhausted his water supply. He filled buckets with seawater and covered them with plastic bags to collect condensation. “I was just licking that to survive,” Sato said. He ate oatmeal, fish, and squid that landed on his boat.
Rescue and future plans
Sato maintained his sanity by meditating and talking to the water and wind. He sensed the presence of his uncle, with whom he had sailed as a boy. On July 22, a Pasha Hawaii vessel spotted him. The crew lowered a rope ladder and gave him a suite, fresh clothes, and food.
“Oh my God, yeah, like ecstatic… like I was crying and like so happy, and then they got me fruit and water,” Sato said. Despite the ordeal, he plans to sail to the Philippines on a larger boat.
