A 63-year-old man who was swept out to sea managed to tread water for more than five hours before two fishermen happened upon him.
Swimmer Dan Ho even made a makeshift flag out of a broken fishing rod and shirt to attract the attention of passing boats when he was swept away by a strong current off Long Island early Monday morning.
His troubles began when he took a dip in the water at Cedar Beach, Babylon, around 5 AM.
According to Suffolk County Police, the Copiague man was soon swept away by strong waves as the current carried him about two and a half miles from shore.
But through a ingenuity, Ho grabbed a nearby fishing rod he found floating in the water, and took off his shirt to make a flag.
Swimmer Dan Ho, 63, was rescued by two heroic fishermen after they came across a makeshift flag he made from a broken fishing rod and his own shirt – while treading water off Long Island for more than five hours on Monday morning
Fishermen Jim Hohorst (right) and Michael Ross (left) encountered Ho around 10:30 a.m. Monday and saved his life by pulling him aboard their 2007 Albin Tropical Soul vessel as he struggled with severe hypothermia
Ho was treading water from 5 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Monday morning after strong currents carried him 4 miles off the coast of Cedar Beach in Babylon, Long Island, NY (pictured)
Five and a half hours later – 10:30 am – he was finally spotted by two men on a motorboat.
Retired FDNY marine engineer Jim Hohorst and his friend Michael Ross were fishing for striped bass aboard their 2007 Albin Tropical Soul when they spotted Ho’s flag.
They approached and realized it was a man, and pulled him aboard their boat before alerting emergency services via VHF radio.
Ross, from Syosset, said there were no other boats around at the time, and when they found Ho, his body had turned gray from hypothermia.
“He was just treading water, praying for a boat to come by,” Ross recalled ABC 7.
“And I can tell you there were no boats in the ocean—not for miles.”
Describing Ho’s condition, Ross said, “He was blue — lips blue, body gray, he was totally hypothermic.
“We wrapped him in towels — I had my arm around him sitting in the back to keep him from falling over and Jim was on the radio with the Coast Guard.”
Ross revealed that Ho thought he was going to die.
“He kept saying, ‘I thought I was a goner, I thought I was a goner,'” he said.
Hohorst, from West Islip, added: ‘I just hope he’s okay and he’s okay’.
Suffolk County Police Department rescuers—Bernadette Benjamin and Robert Jenkins—hurried to meet their civilian boat.
The officers transferred Ho to their ship, the Marine Juliet, and immediately treated him for hypothermia.
Ho was shivering, gray and “completely hypothermic” by the time he was found by the fishermen
Ho had been carried 4 miles from the shoreline by strong currents by the time he was found by the fishermen
“We wrapped him in towels – I had my arm around him sitting in the back to keep him from falling over and Jim was on the radio with the Coast Guard,” said Ross, describing the rescue
They said he was conscious and alert but unable to stand due to heat exhaustion.
A photo released by the department shows Ho wrapped in foil as he was helped aboard their ship.
Ho was eventually brought ashore at the US Coast Guard Station on Fire Island, where he received further medical treatment.
He was then taken by ambulance to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip.