An Indonesian man who was reported missing showed up half-a-day later bobbing along in the middle of the ocean clinging to a plastic barrel.
Indonesian national Catur, 40, was found at around 10.30am floating close to Malaysia's Sibu Island by a fishing boat that had been deployed as part of a mission to rescue him.
The 40-year-old fisherman - who was last spotted on the boat wearing green trousers - said he fell overboard at around 8pm Sunday night before drifting 9.3 nautical miles.
In a statement, officials said the Indonesian national was rushed to hospital for treatment.
The boat's owner Kuek Ho Hwa, 66, raised the alarm at around 11.50pm on Sunday, sparking a 30-man search and rescue operation.
Indonesia's Marine Police and coastguards roped in the help of fishing boats to search an 86-square mile patch of ocean southeast of Sibu Island, which lies off the southeast coast of Malaysia.
Last month, a fisherman shared how he survived 11 days in the ocean by climbing into an upturned freezer.
Romualdo Macedo Rodrigues, 44, was sailing off the coast of French Guiana in a seven-metre wooden boat when it began taking on water and promptly sank.
To make matters worse, the Brazillian native couldn't swim - but luckily he had a freezer on board so he climbed into that and hoped it would float.
He then managed to stay afloat in the floating freezer for 11 days, with no food or water, before he was eventually spotted and pulled from the sea by the crew of another vessel off the coast of Suriname, which borders French Guiana.
He spoke to a local news outlet, and said: "I thought I was going to be attacked by sharks because there are lots of curious fish on the high seas."
He told of the moment of his rescue, saying: "I heard a noise and there was a boat above the freezer. Except they thought there was no one there.
"Then they slowly got closer, my vision was fading, and then I said, 'My God, the boat'. I raised my arms and asked for help."
Romualdo spent his time adrift without food or water and believes he lost about five kilograms (11 lbs) during that time.
And in August, a French man survived for 16 hours in an air bubble inside his capsized sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean.
The 62-year-old French man managed to survive all that time before being rescued by Spanish coastguard divers in what they described as an operation "verging on the impossible".
The 40-foot (12 metre) Jeanne SOLO Sailor sent out a distress signal at 8.23pm on Monday (August 1).
At the time it was 14 miles from the Sisargas Islands off Spain's northwestern Galicia region, according to the coast guard.
Tracking data shows it had set sail from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon on the morning of the previous day (Sunday, July 31).
