{"id":413329,"date":"2026-07-27T00:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T00:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/413329\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T00:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T00:35:13","slug":"california-man-stranded-on-sailboat-survives-month-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/413329\/","title":{"rendered":"California man stranded on sailboat survives month at sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

A California man who went missing in the Pacific Ocean for over a month has been found alive drifting off Hawaii<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kai Sato, 39, left Catalina Island <\/a>on June 7 but two weeks later the mast on his sailboat snapped, he ran out of gas and his phone died, leaving him floating helplessly outside of shipping lanes.<\/p>\n

He said he was left crying for days as he gave up and felt \u201clike a sitting duck\u201d as the waves pushed him further from any chance of being rescued.<\/p>\n

A California man who went missing in the Pacific Ocean for over a month has been found alive drifting off Hawaii. Hawaii News Now<\/p>\n

Kai Sato, 39, left Catalina Island on June 7 but two weeks later the mast on his sailboat snapped, he ran out of gas and his phone died, leaving him floating helplessly outside of shipping lanes. Kai Sato<\/p>\n

He told Hawaii News Now<\/a>: \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he felt like a \u201clike a sitting duck, just getting taken south by the current going way off course.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was left crying for days as he gave up and felt \u201clike a sitting duck\u201d as the waves pushed him further from any chance of being rescued. Hawaii News Now<\/p>\n

He said he felt like a \u201clike a sitting duck, just getting taken south by the current going way off course.\u201d Kai Sato<\/p>\n

But after five days of thinking, he snapped into action and began makeshift repairs to the boat with PVC pipes and kayak paddles.<\/p>\n

He revealed he was feasting on leftover oatmeal as well as fish and squid that landed in his vessel, and was drinking the condensation he gathered in a bucket from seawater.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI was just licking that to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took Sato nearly a month to get back into the shipping lane from California to Hawaii where he was dramatically rescued by a passing container ship en route to the islands on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

After five days of thinking, he snapped into action and began makeshift repairs to the boat with PVC pipes and kayak paddles. Kai Sato<\/p>\n

It took the sailors two attempts to lower a rope ladder to save Sato, where he was given clothes and food after weeks living off anything he could find. Hawaii News Now<\/p>\n

Incredible footage he took on board showed his snapped mast and the waves beating down on the tiny vessel as it fought the tide of the Pacific.<\/p>\n

A rescue picture, taken from on board the Pasha Hawaii, showed the extent of the damage and the sails floating in the ocean below.<\/p>\n

It took the sailors two attempts to lower a rope ladder to save Sato, where he was given clothes and food after weeks living off anything he could find.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cOh 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solo sailor said he is now staying with a relative in Hawaii, but is planning to set off for the Philippines in a larger vessel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A California man who went missing in the Pacific Ocean for over a month has been found alive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4584,7,9,8,2289,4182,21659,4130,39494,3586],"class_list":["post-413329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-boats","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-hawaii","tag-metro","tag-ocean","tag-pacific-ocean","tag-sailing","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}