The Coast Guard had called off the search nine days earlier.
The missing boater's friends had already planned his memorial service.
Then, on Tuesday, the unbelievable happened in the waters off the Hawaiian island of Oahu: Ron Ingraham was found alive - and adrift - in his his 25-foot sailboat.
It was Thanksgiving Day when Ingraham set sail from his home on Molokai to Lanai, according to Hawaii News Now. It was a routine trip for the 67-year-old experienced sailor, CNN reported.
But his boat, Malia, began taking on water, and Ingraham made a distress call for help, saying his vessel was in danger of sinking, according to the Coast Guard.
That initial distress call and a second one later in the day prompted a massive search that involved helicopters and planes and covered 12,000 square miles. But nothing turned up.
A few days later, on Dec. 1, the Coast Guard called off the search.
'When the commanding officer for the Coast Guard told me he was going to call off the search, I said, 'Man, I don't think you should call off the search because I don't think he's gone,'' Ingraham's son Zakary told Hawaii News Now.
Still, the suspension of the search seemed to signal the inevitable, and Ingraham's friends began preparations for a memorial service. It was scheduled for this coming Saturday, they told KITV.
But 12 days after Ingraham dropped off the map, another distress call came through.
'We got a mayday here. Mayday. This is the Malia,' Ingraham was heard saying on Tuesday morning. 'Anybody picking this up?'
The Coast Guard heard the call, which was made 64 miles south of Honolulu. The USS Paul Hamilton, a guided-missile destroyer, was just 14 miles away from Ingraham at the time, according to the Coast Guard. About an hour after his call for help, the Navy ship reported that Ingraham was 'weak, hungry and dehydrated.' But he was alive, and without injuries.
Zakary Ingraham told CNN that his father fishes for a living and lives aboard the boat. The younger Ingraham said his father told rescuers: 'We ain't leaving without my boat.'
Ingraham was brought back to Molokai on Wednesday, along with his boat.
Coast Guard Lt. Scott Carr told KITV that finding a person after a search has ended almost never happens.
'I've been in 21 years, and there's maybe a handful of times where we found somebody after we suspended,' the Coast Guard spokesman said.
Following his rescue, Ingraham told ABC News that he was knocked into the water when a rogue wave hit his boat. 'But I had a rope so I towed myself in,' he told the network. He also told ABC that he'd survived on fish.
'I'm a fisherman so I caught fish; it wasn't as good as a sushi bar, but that's how I hydrated,' he said, according to ABC.
Ingraham's son told CNN that after four days of searching the rough Pacific waters, officials thought the boat had sunk. He was relieved that his gut feeling - that his resourceful, tough-as-nails father was still alive - was right. 'He's alive after 12 days at sea,' Zakary Ingraham said. 'I couldn't be happier.'
And that memorial service for Ron Ingraham scheduled for Saturday?
It will be a celebration instead.
'I thought I was going to die,' he told ABC. 'I hung in there. It took mental discipline. But these guys are real heroes and they save people's lives. I owe it all to them.'
Entities 0 Name: Ingraham Count: 12 1 Name: Coast Guard Count: 8 2 Name: ABC Count: 3 3 Name: CNN Count: 3 4 Name: Zakary Ingraham Count: 2 5 Name: KITV Count: 2 6 Name: Molokai Count: 2 7 Name: Ron Ingraham Count: 2 8 Name: Malia Count: 2 9 Name: Scott Carr Count: 1 10 Name: Lanai Count: 1 11 Name: Hawaii Count: 1 12 Name: ABC News Count: 1 13 Name: Honolulu Count: 1 14 Name: Hawaii News Now Count: 1 15 Name: Navy Count: 1 16 Name: Paul Hamilton Count: 1 17 Name: Zakary Count: 1 18 Name: Oahu Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1wyS382 Title: Hawaii Coast Guard Rescues Ron Ingraham 12 Days After Distress Calls Description: A boater missing for 12 days after issuing desperate mayday calls has been rescued, the Coast Guard said. Ron Ingraham, 67, was last heard from on Nov. 27, when he placed two mayday calls saying his 25-foot sailboat was taking on water and in danger of sinking.