A group of Dutch fishermen have rescued a British man clinging for days to a buoy after his inflatable kayak capsized while crossing the English Channel to France.
The man, 28, survived a two-day wait in the middle of the sea on a diet of seaweed and mussels, wearing only a pair of swimming trunks, according to reports.
The kayaker was rescued at 11am on Thursday morning by the crew of cutter ship De Madelaine from Urk, the Netherlands, according to newspaper De Telegraaf.
The man was spotted by Teunis de Boer, a captain for shipping company T. de Boer en Zonen, as he sailed between England and France.
After a “disappointing” morning of fishing, De Boer said he saw something in the “saw something crazy” moving near near a buoy in the middle of the sea.
He told the publication that, after reaching for a pair of binoculars, he saw the exhausted British man “waving at us like a madman.”
The crew immediately sailed closer to him and worked hastily to rescue him from the buoy. The men threw a life ring in his direction which the Briton grabbed on to before being pulled onto the boat.
According to Het Urkerland, the 28-year-old was suffering from severe hypothermia and dehydration when brought onboard. He was also covered in bruises and his eyes had sunk “very deep in his sockets”.
Captain De Boer said it was “a miracle he survived”.
To rebuild the man’s strength, the crew gave him a Snickers chocolate bar and wrapped him in blankets. He then told the men that he had set out to kayak from Dover to France, but his boat had capsized in the treacherous shipping lane, leaving him with just a buoy to stay afloat.
French authorities told NOS that the man had spent an estimated 48 hours clinging to the buoy for life. He was later airlifted by the French coast guard to the intensive care unit of a hospital in Boulogne-sur-Mer, able to talk but in “bad shape”, reports say.
Unable to muster up the strength to thank the crew in words for saving him from the buoy, he instead made heart signs to his hands in a show of gratitude.
