{"id":413424,"date":"2026-07-27T03:09:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T03:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/413424\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T03:09:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T03:09:17","slug":"california-man-missing-for-over-a-month-in-the-pacific-ocean-is-suddenly-found-drifting-off-hawaii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/413424\/","title":{"rendered":"California man missing for over a month in the Pacific Ocean is suddenly found drifting off Hawaii"},"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 “like a sitting duck” as the waves pushed him further from any chance of being rescued.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/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<\/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>: “I 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.”<\/p>\n

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

\"He<\/p>\n

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

\"He<\/p>\n

He said he felt like a “like a sitting duck, just getting taken south by the current going way off course.” 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: “I was just licking that to survive.”<\/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<\/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<\/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: “Oh 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.”<\/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":413425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2289,165206,165509,103973,165511,165510],"class_list":["post-413424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-hawaii","tag-hawaii-news-now","tag-kai-sato","tag-shipping-lanes","tag-sitting-duck","tag-the-pacific-ocean"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413424","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=413424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}