KAILUA-KONA >> The Coast Guard says it assisted a 38-year-old man who drifted off course while trying to kayak to Hawaii’s Big Island from Maui.

West Hawaii Today reports the man called Coast Guard watchstanders on his cell phone just before 6:29 p.m. Tuesday to report that he was about 19 miles northeast of Kohala.

Coast Guard officials say the man drifted off course after he lost sight of the island because of volcanic smog.

Coast Guard responders dropped a radio and a life jacket to the kayaker, who had no other lifesaving equipment on board. The Coast Guard says the kayaker’s cell phone battery had become depleted.