Well, you're right it's not actually too clear. Although assuming he's
not lying, it seems likely that he's misusing the term VMC.

He says "I was in VMC the whole time yet it probably would have been
illegal to fly in VFR as I would have been close to the clouds". This
tells me he thinks he was too close to clouds at some point to be legal
for VFR. This further implies he is aware there exists a cloud
clearance requirement for legal VFR. So assuming he's not lying when he
estimates he was too close to them for VFR, then he must have
mistakenly used the term VMC to mean he remained clear of clouds.

At least that's the way I read it. The first time through.