Sounds like suicide by Jon boat.
OTOH, perhaps he is a Wokester and believes reality is what he wants it to be. I hope his rescuers used his/her/he/she/they/it preferred pronouns.
Oh I don’t know. Had a buddy with a 12 foot Boston Whaler with a 25 hp outboard. He would take 2, 6 gallon tanks with him and off shore he would go till the first tank ran out empty. would fish all day and come back in on the second tank.
Where he put in is a protected body of water so he had to make the conscious (and dumbass) decision to go out in the open ocean.
A couple years ago two off duty Firefighters went out in a power boat and disappeared.
Air and boat crews spent six days fanning out to cover over 146,368 square miles — roughly the size of Montana and only found a couple of things off the boat.
Never found them OR the boat.
This kid was UNBELIEVABLY fortunate.
I used to have a 12’ Durocraft and a 6 hp Johnson . Dumbest thing I ever did on the4th largest lake in Texas.
25 Year old , living with Mom, goes fishing 3-4 times a week. “has been on the water his whole life.” Goes out to sea in a 12 foot boat. Hm.