A great FReeper gave us all this amazinf site last week. It will show what happened to the boat.
http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-97.93,35.39,400
I wonder if there is a site that has a globe with ocean currents. Correlating the two would give to us more info about whether or not his story might be legit.
As for his apparent extra weight.....the only think that I can think is that long periods of malnutrition can cause bloating.