BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The Colombian navy rescued a man from Dominica who says he was adrift for 24 days in the Caribbean Sea aboard a sailboat.

Elvis Francois, 47, had scrawled the word “help” in English on the boat’s hull, which officials said was key to his rescue.

The sailboat in which Francois was adrift was spotted from the air 120 nautical miles northwest of La Guajira peninsula and then escorted to the port city of Cartagena with the help of a passing container ship, the Colombian navy said in a statement Wednesday.

Francois told Colombian authorities that he lost control of the sailboat while making repairs to it near the island of St. Martin in the Dutch Antilles.

The navy said Francois received medical attention and was then handed over to immigration authorities for his return home to Dominica.