A California man who went missing in the Pacific Ocean for over a month has been found alive drifting off Hawaii.

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.

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.

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

He told Hawaii News Now: “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.”

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He said he felt like a “like a sitting duck, just getting taken south by the current going way off course.”

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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
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He said he felt like a “like a sitting duck, just getting taken south by the current going way off course.”Kai Sato
But after five days of thinking, he snapped into action and began makeshift repairs to the boat with PVC pipes and kayak paddles.

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.

He said: “I was just licking that to survive.”

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.

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After five days of thinking, he snapped into action and began makeshift repairs to the boat with PVC pipes and kayak paddles.Kai Sato
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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
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.
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A rescue picture, taken from on board the Pasha Hawaii, showed the extent of the damage and the sails floating in the ocean below.

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.

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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.”

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.

source: https://nypost.com/2026/07/26/us-news/california-man-stranded-on-sailboat-survives-month-at-sea/