GILGO, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- A Long Island swimmer who was swept out to sea Monday treaded water for more than five hours before he was rescued by a passing boat, police said Tuesday.
Dan Ho, 63, went for an early morning swim around 5 a.m. at Cedar Beach in Babylon, but a current pulled him out into the open waters of the Atlantic.
Ho treaded water for more than five hours without a flotation device before he found a broken fishing pole in the water and tied his shirt to it to jury-rig a flag, police said.
He then waved the flag in the air to get the attention of passing boaters.
About 2.5 miles south of where he entered the water in Babylon, he was spotted by fishermen aboard a 2007 Albin named the Tropical Soul.
Captain Jim Hohorst, of West Islip, and his friend Michael Ross, of Syosset, pulled Ho onto the boat and notified the U.S. Coast Guard over VHF radio.
"As we got closer, we both sort of looked there, it was like, 'That's a person,'" Hohorst said.
"He was just treading water, praying that some boat would come by. And I can tell you there were no boats in the area, not for miles," Ross said. "He just kept saying, 'I thought I was a goner, I thought I was a goner.'"
"He was blue—lips blue, body's gray," Ross said. "He was shaking, he was totally hypothermic. We wrapped him in towels. I had my arm around him sitting in the backseat, just keeping him from falling over, and Jim's on the radio with the Coast Guard."
The Marine Juliet responded and brought Ho aboard the ship, where they treated him for hypothermia.
Ho was conscious and alert at the time but unable to stand, police said.
The Marine Juliet transported him to the Coast Guard station on Fire Island, where he was treated by a Coast Guard medic.
He was then taken by West Islip Fire Department ambulance to Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip. He's expected to be okay.
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