In a photo taken by a Good Samaratan vessel owner, Joel Brady-Power, a U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Sitka Jayhawk helicopter hovers near Ryan Harris as the 19-year-old fisherman tries to stay upright in a blue fish bin near Sitka, Alaska, Saturday, Sept. 8, 2012. Harris was rescued after spending more than 24 hours in the fish bin he entered when the boat he was fishing on sank suddenly in the open Pacific. (AP Photo, Daily Sitka Sentinel, Joel Brady-Power)
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SITKA, Alaska (AP) — A fisherman spent a night adrift in a 4-by-4 foot (1-meter by 1 -meter) plastic fish bin after his boat was hit by big waves and overturned off the coast of Alaska.
A Coast Guard helicopter hoisted Ryan Harris, 19, of Sitka, from his plastic "lifeboat" on Saturday, more than 24 hours after the boat sank on Friday, the Daily Sitka Sentinel (http://is.gd/bgoPcT) reported Monday.
Harris told the newspaper he gave himself pep talks and sang "Rudolf, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" to keep his spirits up.
His fellow crewmember managed to get into a survival suit and washed ashore on a beach after his own night afloat. Two hours before Harris' rescue, crewmate Stonie "Mac" Huffman was rescued from a beach.
"It's truly a miracle they survived," said Sitka Mountain Rescue Director Don Kluting, who helped in the search.
"I never thought I was going to die, but I was worried about Mac," Harris told the newspaper Monday. "I'm glad to be here."
The two managed to grab some empty fish totes that had washed loose. Huffman stabilized one while Harris climbed inside. The men weren't able to get Huffman into a bin but he took a plastic bin lid for flotation. Eight-foot waves soon separated the men.
The Coast Guard said that Huffman told them the lid drifted away during the two hours that he struggled to get into the survival suit.
At one point, Harris said, his bin dumped him and he struck his head, but he was able to get in and keep it balanced for the remainder of the 26 hours until his rescue.
The toughest part was not knowing the fate of his friend, Harris said.
"I gave myself a pep talk," he said. He kept repeating for four hours: "I'm Ryan Hunter Harris and I'm not going to die here."
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