A 19 year-old Indonesian boy was just rescued from the ocean after spending 49 days lost at sea in a tiny fishing hut.

It all started back in July, when Aldi Novel Adilang was working as a lamplighter on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. Aldi was on a small floating fishing hut called a “rompong,” which has no paddles or engines of any kind. It was an incredibly windy night, and the ropes that were keeping the rompong attached to the dock snapped, sending Aldi adrift.

Aldi only had a few days worth of food, water, and fuel on the rompong, forcing him to have to catch his own fish to survive. He cooked the fish on fires that he made on the rompong, and he drank salt water through his shirt to make sure the amount of salt he ingested was minimal.

“[He] said he had been scared and often cried while adrift,” said Indonesian diplomat Fajar Firdaus. “Every time he saw a large ship, he said, he was hopeful, but more than 10 ships had sailed past him. None of them … saw [him].”

Aldi was able to survive for 49 days in this way before he was finally spotted by a Panamanian vessel more than 77 miles (125 kilometers) at sea in Guam waters. Officials were stunned to find that Aldi was not dehydrated at all, and they are at a loss to explain how he managed to stay so healthy in those conditions.

The ship brought Aldi to the Indonesian consulate in Japan, and he was flown back to his home island two days later. Find out more about his amazing story in the video below!