[Excerpts]

A tourist from Germany survived being knocked overboard and left adrift for hours on the open water off the coast of New Zealand last week -- all thanks to his jeans.

Arne Murke was delivering a yacht with his brother from Auckland, New Zealand to Brazil when they ended up sailing through rough seas about 20 miles off Tolaga Bay on March 6.

The 40-foot yacht's mainsheet suddenly came loose amid the rough swells and knocked Murke overboard while he was only wearing a t-shirt and jeans.

"My brother started directly to get me but the swell was like three meters," he told the New Zealand Herald. "He threw a life jacket with a rope overboard. I couldn't reach that, it was already too far away."

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"I took a deep breath, took out my jeans, made knots at the end of the legs and inflated the jeans; pull it over water and get air inside and then push it under water -- I had like an improvised life vest," he told the news outlet.

As he floated in the sea for the next few hours, Murke said he thought of his 10-month-old daughter, who lives with his girlfriend in the Philippines.

After nearly 4 hours, he was stopped by a rescue helicopter that was searching the area with the New Zealand Coastguard and Royal New Zealand Air Force, according to Sky News.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019...RC=eb_190312.nl