Japan Coast Guard searchers plucked a British man from waters off Japan's northern coast early Sunday after his boat's rudder broke, forcing him to abandon an attempt to row across the Pacific Ocean, officials said.
Mick Dawson, 39, uninjured and in good health, was rescued at 3:50 a.m. Sunday, about 640 km off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture by a coast guard patrol vessel, said Koji Narita, a JCG official.
Heavy fog had prevented a search plane from spotting him for hours, but the patrol boat eventually found Dawson, he said.
Narita said the patrol boat carrying Dawson was expected to reach a local port early Monday.
Dawson had contacted Japanese authorities using a satellite telephone Saturday.
Dawson had set off for San Francisco from Japan's eastern coast near Tokyo on June 2. He had plenty of food and water on the boat, officials said.
A former British Royal Marine, Dawson successfully rowed across the Atlantic Ocean in 2001 with his brother, according to a Web site about his Pacific crossing attempt.
