A Polish sailor claimed on Wednesday that his boat drifted for more than six months in shark- and pirate-infested waters before eventually washing ashore on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion on Christmas Day.

Sceptics are doubtful about Zbigniew Reket’s story, but others argue that his emaciated state and badly damaged boat point to an ordeal of some kind on the high seas.

He told reporters in Réunion, a French island to the east of Madagascar, that he was left adrift with just a one-month supply of noodles to keep him alive after his engine failed in May and a storm destroyed his radio. His claims are impossible to verify.

Mr Reket, 54, said he had been living in the United States, but left in 2014 for India, where he bought a boat. He could not return to the US because his green card had expired, so he set sail for Indonesia in a large, covered lifeboat of the kind carried on cruise ships, which he had equipped with a mast, an engine and a rudder.

The mast soon broke and the wind carried him west. He landed on the Comoros Islands, off the east coast of Africa. He claims to have spent two years there. He said he contacted the Polish embassy in Kenya, which allegedly rejected his request to be repatriated.