On Wednesday, a Colombian sailor found stranded out in the Pacific Ocean 3,500 miles from home finally made it to dry land, according to NBC News. He’d been fighting for survival for two months, forced to eat sea gulls and bear witness to the deaths of his three shipmates.

The 29-year-old mariner had been at sea with three others in a 23-foot skiff, he told the U.S. Coast Guard. When the engine failed, they found themselves in a worst-case scenario. But scavenging for fish and birds wasn’t enough to keep all of them alive. Of his three companions, their passports were the only things left of them.

The skiff was first sighted on April 26 by a Panamanian cargo ship, around 2,150 miles southeast of Hawaii, according to NBC News. When the Coast Guard made the rescue, they found him in a bleak and sinister stretch of the Pacific. A Coast Guard lieutenant said that the area in which the sailor was found is not heavily trafficked, and it was a fortunate stroke of luck that he was spotted at all.

Every day, we highlight one newly found object, curiosity or wonder. Discover something amazing? Tell us about it! Send your finds to sarah.laskow@atlasobscura.com.