A Dutch fishing vessel rescued a British man in the English Channel after his kayak capsized and he was forced to cling to a buoy for days.
The skipper, Teunis de Boer, stated that he saw the kayaker waiving furiously as his vessel Madeleine passed by by mistake.
The skipper informed Dutch media that he was plainly in anguish.
After receiving water and a chocolate bar, French officials transported the man to the hospital.
The drama unfolded late Thursday morning in a shipping lane in the Dover Strait, also known as the Pas de Calais, several miles west of the French coast.
The skipper of the vessel stated he was checking to ensure they were not steering too close to the Colbert Nord buoy when he suddenly observed movement on it. I picked up the binoculars and saw a young man in only his swim trunks waving madly at us,” he said on the website of De Telegraaf.
They tossed lifebuoys to the British man and dragged him aboard. “He was covered in injuries and claimed that he had survived by eating mussels from the buoy and small crabs and seaweed,” Mr. De Boer told NOS. Because he was dehydrated and hypothermic, the crew wrapped him in blankets.
A French coastguard helicopter arrived on the scene immediately and transports the British man to a hospital in nearby Boulogne.
How long he had survived while clinging to the buoy is less clear. The man told the fishing boat captain that he had left Dover in his kayak on October 15, twelve days before he was rescued.
The French marine prefect for the Channel and North Sea stated in a statement that he had left Dover around 48 hours ago.
The prefecture cautioned anyone planning to cross the English Channel of the dangers involved, noting that circumstances were frequently extremely hazardous and that more than 400 merchant ships traveled through it daily.
