# Polish sailor rescued after 7 months at sea



## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

Polish sailor rescued after 7 months drifting in Indian Ocean, had cat for company | world-news | Hindustan Times
The French coast guard has rescued a Polish sailor in the Indian Ocean who says he spent seven months with only his cat for company in a broken-down boat.
Investigators are seeking to piece together the itinerary of the 54-year-old who says he took to the sea in his makeshift vessel from the Comoros Islands off the coast of Mozambique in May with the aim of reaching South Africa.
The journey of more than 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) would have seen him travel south down the Mozambique Channel, a busy shipping route with strong currents for his vessel, a modified lifeboat from a cruise ship.
Instead of reaching South Africa, he was plucked from the waves well off-course, near the French island of Reunion, on Sunday after being spotted by the crew of a yacht.
Madagascar, the world's fourth largest island, lies between Reunion and Mozambique.
The sailor said he and his cat survived on half a packet of Chinese soup per day as well as what he caught by fishing.


----------



## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

> The instruments on his boat had been smashed and the man had no means of communication, France's SNSM coast guard service told AFP. According to his telling, his odyssey started in 2014 when he travelled to India from his home in the United States and bought his boat with the intention of sailing it back to Poland.
> 
> After spending time modifying it himself, he took to the water but the boat broke down after leaving port because of a problem with its mast.
> 
> The sailor drifted in the Indian Ocean before washing up on the Comoros Islands.


Is he launching a GoFundMe page to raise money with the goal of holding the press accountable for his idiocy too?


----------



## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

It seems like he was more or less living a castaway life even before his boat became disabled. Will he try to milk his current situation? Maybe, but he could use a handout right now and he was very poor to begin with. So for me at least, he fits the definition of a man in need.


----------



## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

He was really out there doing it...


----------



## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

The parallels (DIY fixer-upper, no working comms, mast issues, traveling with a pet, lost for months, no one looking for him) are amazing... 

For as long as he does not try to milk the situation, I will wish him the best.


----------



## paulk (Jun 2, 2000)

French websites are marking the same parallels, commenting that he couldn't have been too badly off if he didn't have to eat his cat.


----------



## midwesterner (Dec 14, 2015)

eherlihy said:


> The parallels (DIY fixer-upper, no working comms, mast issues, traveling with a pet, lost for months, no one looking for him) are amazing...
> 
> For as long as he does not try to milk the situation, I will wish him the best.


What, in your opinion, is "milking the situation"? I wouldn't be offended if he wrote a book and sold movie rights, ...if he has a good story to tell.


----------



## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

I would say that trying to convert a cruise ship lifeboat into a sailboat was his first major mistake. Trying to sail such a contraption 1200 miles down a busy coastal route often facing strong counter currents and head winds was a close second major mistake. WTF was he thinking? Dude is very lucky to be alive. Looks like he had his wits about him and at least knew how to survive on rainwater, meager rations, and whatever he could catch in the sea.


----------



## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

midwesterner said:


> What, in your opinion, is "milking the situation"? I wouldn't be offended if he wrote a book and sold movie rights, ...if he has a good story to tell.


I would be interested in a factual story that others can learn from too! However, if he behaved as another person with a boat has (I will not refer to her as "a sailor"), I will lose patience with him.

Milking the situation in my opinion would be creating and promoting a dubious story in which he blames his misfortune on the people that tried to help him, followed by a promotional appearance on national television, a GoFundMe page, and coloring this dubious story with anecdotes of incredible storms, rescuers that became a threat, and marine life behaving in ways in which it doesn't.


----------



## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

I've seen a couple of life conversions into cruising boats. I can think of worse boats for the task. They're self righting, many have bilge keels to provide some lateral resistance, positively bouyant, excellent load carrying capacity, many come with super reliable hand crank single cylinder deisels.

No doubt they would suck upwind but 90-180, I can't see any reason you wouldn't be able to sail one okay with a low aspect rig. Junk schooner or something.


----------



## Slayer (Jul 28, 2006)

This guy named Ernest Shackleton converted a life boat a while back and sailed some 900 odd miles in some pretty tough seas.


----------



## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

Slayer said:


> This guy named Ernest Shackleton converted a life boat a while back and sailed some 900 odd miles in some pretty tough seas.


No doubt. But all downwind.


----------



## James Nguyen (Nov 9, 2016)

What he tried to achieve, seems like a nut but his courage to take on the challenge is admirable. It is easy to criticize a failure than applaud the effort. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## James Nguyen (Nov 9, 2016)

midwesterner said:


> What, in your opinion, is "milking the situation"? I wouldn't be offended if he wrote a book and sold movie rights, ...if he has a good story to tell.


Surviving on a broken boat in the middle of the ocean for 7 months is a good story to tell.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## miatapaul (Dec 15, 2006)

midwesterner said:


> What, in your opinion, is "milking the situation"? I wouldn't be offended if he wrote a book and sold movie rights, ...if he has a good story to tell.


Well to me that would be working, not milking it at all. Even if the story was completely made up, fiction writing is not easy. But go fund me to recover from a self induced situation is.


----------



## ntolst (Dec 5, 2012)

How about contraption that Ernest Shackleton sailed 720 miles from Elephant Island to South Georgia?


----------



## SVTatia (May 7, 2007)

James Nguyen said:


> Surviving on a broken boat in the middle of the ocean for 7 months is a good story to tell.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


7 months = approx.. 210 days.
Assuming he got off his track on day 10, he will have to be extremely good to keep the reader entertained for the accounts between days 11 and 209&#8230;


----------

