Sailor recalls nightmare after being stranded on boat for 30 days in Pacific Ocean: 'I cried for a whole week'

Published: 01:35, 28 July 2026 | Updated: 01:35, 28 July 2026 A California man was left stranded on a broken-down sailboat in the Pacific Ocean for more than a month before he was rescued. Kaichi 'Kai' Sato, 39, set off from the Golden State's Catalina Islands on June 7 in a daring attempt to complete his first solo sail to Hawaii, he told Hawaii News Now. But just two weeks into the 2,500 mile voyage, his mast snapped. Then, when he tried to motor back to shore, Sato ran out of gas and his phone died – leaving him drifting in the middle of the ocean. 'I was literally like a sitting duck, just taken south by the current going way off course,' he recounted. 'I cried for a whole week, just drifting south, like miserable,' he continued. 'I felt like I was going to just try to turn my motor on and just suffocate, to kill myself.' Still, Sato didn't give up – and after five days, he decided to take action, jerry-rigging the sails using PVC pipes and kayak paddles. It then took Sato another month to make his way back into the shipping lane from California to Hawaii – and the voyage was still not easy. Sato ran out of water on July 11, and was only able to survive by filling buckets with water and sealing them off with plastic bags to collect the condensation. 'I was just licking that to survive,' he said, noting that he mostly ate oatmeal, and the fish and squid that landed in his boat. Kaichi 'Kai' Sato, 39, spent more than a month stranded in the Pacific Ocean as he attempted to sail from California to Hawaii The mast of his sailboat broke after just two weeks into the 2,500 mile voyage, and he was forced to improvise using PVC pipes and kayak paddles During the arduous journey, Sato recalled calling out for guidance, meditating and talking to the water and the wind. But he said he also felt the presence of his uncle, who previously completed a sail from California to Hawaii with him when he was a young boy. Relief finally came last Tuesday, when two watch-standers aboard the 774-foot M/V George III spotted Sato's makeshift ship about 900 miles from Hawaii, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The ship's crew then changed course, and spent about an hour and a half maneuvering to get close enough to Sato's ship to bring him aboard.  At the same time, crew members prepared life rings and a pilot ladder – before ultimately firing a line toward the sailboat, which Sato secured to his boat's stern, allowing the crew to pull the smaller vessel closer to the container ship. Once he was close enough, the crew was able to drop a rope ladder to Sato, and he climbed aboard. The crew of the ship, operated by Pasha Hawaii, then provided Sato with a suite, clothes and food – making Sato 'ecstatic.' 'Like, I was like crying and like so happy,' he recounted to Hawaii News Now. 'And then they got me fruit and water, and yeah, they were so good to me, these guys.' Sato is now staying with a relative in Hawaii, and despite the terrifying endeavor, he is planning his next sail to the Philippines – but this time on a larger boat.