Man lost at sea for 12 days is rescued

The Coast Guard didn't think Ron Ingraham could
survive, stuck in a 25-foot sailboat for days as waves
swelled 15 to 20 feet high. His son did.
"I don't feel like he's dead," Zakary Ingraham told a
Coast Guard official nine days ago, after learning their
search was ending. "I don't feel it."
He was right.
Ron Ingraham was picked up Tuesday morning bout 64
miles (103 kilometers) south of Honolulu, "weak, hungry
and dehydrated" and -- most important -- alive.
His rescue came 12 days after he made his first distress
call, a difficult stretch even for a veteran fisherman.
But he wasn't beaten up enough to lose his priorities.
According to his son, the 67-year-old Ron Ingraham told
his rescuers, "We ain't leaving without my boat."
So the sailor and his boat are heading back to the Hawaii
island Molokai, where they're expected to arrive at 8 a.m.
(1 p.m. ET) Wednesday.
What will his dad do, once he gets back? Will he relax,
take some time off, maybe look for a less dangerous
profession?
"I'm sure he's going to go fishing as soon as he's able,"
Zakary Ingraham said by phone from Missouri. "Like
tomorrow."
Son: Ron Ingraham is tough, strong, resourceful
Some people in their late 60s might be enjoying retirement
or, at least, reining it in a few notches as life slows down.
Not Ron Ingraham, who is son describes as resourceful,
physically strong and tough.
"You know who Rambo is?" Zakary Ingraham joked.
"Rambo has a picture of my dad on his wall."
Fishing is his life and livelihood. Ron Ingraham lives on
his boat and "that's pretty much all he's got," his son said --
explaining his insistence his battered vessel, which he named
Malia, be towed back to shore.
He set off solo around Thanksgiving from Molokai on what
should have been a normal trip, like many others he'd made
over the years.
It didn't turn out that way. He made distress calls on the
holiday, indicating his boat was taking on water.
Those calls spurred a search that would end up covering
12,000 square miles. It included an MH-65 helicopter, an
HC-130 airplane and the 110-foot Coast Guard Cutter
Kiska.
But none of them could find Ron Ingraham or his boat.
'Mayday; small boat, in danger of sinking'
On December 1, the Coast Guard called off its search.
Zakary Ingraham said he was told that airplanes, but not
satellites, picked up his father's emergency beacon --
suggesting it either had a weak battery or his boat was
submerged. With rocky seas, the weather wasn't
cooperating either.
"With the conditions the way they are, we couldn't find
your dad's boat," Zakary Ingraham recalled a Coast
Guard official telling him. "We think it's sunk."
In fact, Ron Ingraham's boat was still afloat.
And on Tuesday, he decided to give the distress call one
more try. His life depended on it.
"This is a mayday, mayday, mayday," said Ingraham. "...
Small boat, in danger of sinking."
The U.S. Coast Guard heard the call and immediately
dispatched the closest available boat -- the USS Paul
Hamilton, a U.S. Navy destroyer, then about 14 miles
away.
They found Ingraham's masts broken and him using an
auxiliary sail trying to get closer to land, his friend and
fellow fisherman Dedrick Manaba told CNN affiliate
Hawaii News Now.
And, of course, there was Ingraham himself -- weary
and battered, but still going, much to the relief of his friends
and family.
"He's alive after 12 days at sea," his son Zakary Ingraham
said. "I couldn't be happier."