A Brazilian fisherman is thanking a floating freezer for saving his life.

Romualdo Macedo Rodrigues says he's lucky to be alive after he spent 11 days alone at sea floating inside a cooler after his boat sank off the coast of Brazil, Record TV reported.

Rodrigues told the news outlet that he set out for a 3-day fishing trip last month when he noticed his boat was sinking.

As the vessel went down, he saw the freezer and jumped inside it, the news outlet reported.

For 11 days, Rodrigues, who doesn't know how to swim, floated alone in the Atlantic Ocean without food or water.

He told the news outlet that sharks surrounded the freezer, and water began seeping into the cooler, but he never gave up hope that he would be rescued.

According to Record TV, on the 11th day, he heard a boat, so he stuck his arms so they could see him.

The news outlet reported that a group of fishermen found him off the coast of Suriname.

The media outlet reported that he was treated at a hospital and detained by officials for a few days because he didn't have the proper documentation.

But he was later released and has since returned home to be with his family, Return TV reported.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. —

A man visiting Hilton Head Island in South Carolina with his family captured cellphone video of an alligator charging at a fisherman.

"My wife and three kids decided to go for a bike ride," said Micah Kimberlin, who recorded the video. "We came across a couple people standing [near a pond] and then we see an alligator...this gentleman is fishing kind of far away and it's headed directly towards him. That's when I started filming this alligator heading toward him."

No one was injured.

The alligator re-entered the pond shortly after charging on land.

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources said it is likely that the alligator associated humans with food.

"My opinion is it was probably an alligator that has been fed," said Morgan Hart, alligator project coordinator for SCDNR. "It has learned that people fishing there have given it food in the past. It is very hard to unteach an alligator that people mean food."

Watch the video below

Hart said if you're ever fishing in a pond with a gator, you should keep your distance.

"If you're seeing alligators, they're approaching you, they're interested in your bait, your line, your bobber, you should pull all that gear out, step away, give them time to move on," she said.

Kimberlin's brother-in-law captured a photo of crews removing alligators from the pond where the incident happened.

SCDNR wants to remind everyone that a fed gator is a dead gator.

"Once an alligator learns to approach people for food, that is a dangerous animal that has to be removed," Hart said.

MAUI COUNTY, Hawaii —

A Hawaii fisherman with years of experience on the water found himself in a very dangerous situation last weekend.

Claude Moreau has been fishing on Maui for over 40 years. He and his daughter, Charme, were on their way back home from Hana last Sunday morning when they dozed off.

"I sat down because I was tired," Claude, 70, said. "And the next thing I know I was sleeping. I didn't know I was sleeping. Next thing I noticed -- Boom. That's how I woke up."

Claude's boat, Maile, smashed into a group of giant rocks, in waters right off the island's north shore.

"I looked at him and said 'make a mayday call right now... Mayday mayday," Charme recalled. "He got in Mayday. 'Mayday This is Maile.' Then the boat went under and he went under with the boat."

Suddenly, Charme lost sight of him. Her dad was trapped under the boat as it sank.

"You see those movies where people are trying to save those people underwater and they can barely get to them," she said. "And I had that feeling because I went down and I couldn't see him."

Through strength, courage and the will to survive, Charme dove underwater, found her dad and pulled him back to the surface.

But now, they still were stuck in the middle of the ocean.

"I look at the shoreline and [I see] crashing huge rocks, and crashing huge lava rocks," Charme said.

They had no choice.

"I held him and I went on my back just like lifeguard style on my back, just pulling and swimming with my head up and taking deep breaths," she remembered. "And I kept telling him don't let the water go in your mouth because that's what was happening, it was going in and drowning both of us."

Charme said they swam over an hour to get to the rocky shoreline.

"The waves are crashing, we have to not bash our heads open," she said. "So that was the point when we were trying to get in, I had that moment, like, wow, we may not make it."

The pair took a chance and crashed onto the rocks. "We both tumble and I just see him tumbling, but we're on the rocks and I'm like, 'Oh, we made it!'"

They weren't in the clear yet, though, as they had to figure how to get to the top of the giant rock pile to get onto land.

Then, out of nowhere, they were given a helping hand. Or a helping rope.

"Mahalo ke Akua and all his angels for those wonderful fishermen who put ropes," Charme said. "Somebody put ropes. So I was like 'There are ropes! I can make it!'"

Charme did make it -- she climbed all the way up and was able to track down people who called 911.

The Maui Fire Department flew in a helicopter and plucked Claude from the rocks and took him to the hospital.

With just a few bumps and bruises, this fisherman and his daughter are happy to be alive, grateful to their community and want their story to be a lesson.