An eagle-eyed sailor who fell overboard in the South Pacific was narrowly saved, thanks to an abandoned buoy he spotted in the distance.

Vidam Perevertilov, a 52-year-old supply ship engineer, disappeared off the Silver Supporter vessel somewhere between New Zealand and Pitcairn Island, well before sunrise on Feb. 16.

As he was fighting to stay afloat, Perevertilov saw what he described as a “black speck” on the water’s surface far away and swam toward it with blind hope.

Mercifully, his instincts had led him to an adrift fishing buoy — what would otherwise be considered litter in the open ocean.

For a harrowing 14 hours he clung for dear life to the float with no assurance he’d be rescued before succumbing to the unforgiving water or its ruthless predators.

Perevertilov’s son Marat, from Lithuania, told Kiwi news site Stuff that his father’s “will to survive was strong,” despite “struggling to stay afloat” during the hourslong nightmare.”

“I probably would have drowned straight away,” the relieved son said, “but he always kept himself fit and healthy and that’s why I think he could survive.”

Six hours passed before the crew realized that Perevertilov, the ship’s chief engineer, was missing, but his work log indicated that he must have fallen over some time soon after 4 a.m., at a spot about 400 miles south of French Polynesia’s Austral Islands.

The sailor had felt “dizzy” following his overnight shift in the engine room, according to his son, and sought fresh air on the ship’s deck.

Perevertilov does not remember how or why he fell over, he told Marat, believing he must have fainted. He came to just as his ship became out of reach.

The Silver Supporter made a distress call and was soon joined by a French navy aircraft stationed in Polynesia. Meanwhile, France’s meteorological service analyzed wind patterns and currents to help determine where Perevertilov may have drifted. When rescuers arrived at 6 p.m. they found the man remarkably unscathed by the harrowing experience.

“We all feared for the worst, given the sheer scale of the Pacific Ocean, and its strong currents,” said Laura Clarke, who is the British high commissioner to New Zealand and governor of the Pitcairn Islands, in a statement to the New Zealand Herald. “So the fact that the Silver Supporter found him, and he survived is just amazing.”

When asked whether Perevertilov had taken the buoy with him as a grim souvenir, Marat told Stuff, “It’s funny. He said he wanted to leave it there, so it could save another person’s life.”