Three years after a Sooke crew saved him, he came back
Alec Frydman spent nearly two weeks alone in a life raft. The Ocean Sunset found him.
By The Westshore · Nov 3, 2026 · 1 min readCorrection?
Photo: Iggwilv / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons · Sooke Harbour, 2007 (file photo, not the Ocean Sunset) · Image source · Licence
In October 2023, the boat Alec Frydman was working on sank off the Washington coast. He spent nearly two weeks alone in a life raft, watching ships go by without seeing him.
When the Ocean Sunset, a Sooke fishing boat, came close, he lit his last flare and yelled. Someone yelled back: “We see you. We’re coming.” The crew fed him breakfast sandwiches. He ate six.
Last week, Frydman came back to Vancouver Island to see them. He met the crew in Ucluelet at the end of their season and stayed with the family in Sooke. He’d worried it might be awkward. Captain John Planes threw his arms wide and hugged him.
Danny George didn’t recognise him at first. Three years ago, Frydman was skin and bones. Now, George says, “He’s smiling all the time.”
Crew member Ryan Planes died this year. Roxanne Egan-Elliott has the full story in the Times Colonist.
