One man stranded on the water for six hours while windsurfing

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del.- One man experienced a life or death situation when his sail broke last Thursday while windsurfing on the Rehoboth Bay.

According to Dr. Victor Gong, he drifted away from the shore when his sail gave out and he wasn’t able to fix it. On top of that, he had to battle the strong winds from a nor’easter and was unable to paddle through the waves. As conditions got worse on the water, Dr. Gong said he tried to signal to people on the beach with his whistle, but the wind was too loud. That’s when he said things started to get scary and he had to start thinking about how he was going to survive.

Dr. Gong told 47ABC “…This is not good, this was after I was trying to paddle in for an hour on my board and my sail wasn’t going anywhere because of the current.”

As time passed, Dr. Gong said he started to feel a little discouraged because he didn’t see any helicopters or anybody in the parking lot.

He would end up being stranded for six hours on the water as he floated across the bay. When he got to shore around 2 a.m., he trekked through marsh to get to nearby homes.

Dr. Gong said he knocked on the first door and nobody answered. When he knocked on the second door, nobody answered again, but the homeowner had a car there and the back door was unlocked. He stayed in there for four or five hours until sunlight.

Now safe and lucky to be alive Dr. Gong said this experience taught him to bring other necessary items with him next time he’s out windsurfing.