A Lithuanian rower who was caught in waters off Queensland’s coast in the lead up to Cyclone Alfred for four days has described his ordeal as “hell on earth”.

Aurimas Mockus had an emotional reunion with his wife in Sydney today after five months at sea.

It’s been five months since he set off on a 12,000km solo row from San Diego to Brisbane partly in tribute to the Ukrainian people killed in the Russian invasion.

The 44-year-old was 740 kilometres off the coast of Mackay last Friday when he was caught in the storm.

Mockus spoke with the Lithuanian ambassador as a translator.

“The boat was turning around, rolling maybe 30 times,” he said.

“Like cat in washing machine”

Mockus managed to send out a distress signal.

He was spotted by aircraft the following day but the conditions delayed the retrieval mission.

Rescue ship HMAS Choules battled 16m swell to get there.

After four days holding on for dear life help arrived.

Mockus said his original goal was to get to Sydney, and that it would be a while before he attempted the major feat again – which was all in support of Ukraine.