Kai Sato, 39, couldn’t predict that two weeks into his voyage from Catalina Island to Hawaii, the mast would break, according to Hawaii News Now, the first outlet to report the story.
Sato’s dilemma was compounded after he ran out of fuel and couldn’t use the motor to get back to shore. With no motor and a broken mast, Sato’s boat drifted off course, leaving him drifting out at sea as he tried to find his way back to the busy shipping route between California and Hawaii.