American sailor rescued after 2 months lost at sea
Print Edition
AN American man missing at sea for more than two months is celebrating his miraculous rescue after being picked up on Thursday by a passing ship and airlifted to land, the United States Coast Guard said.
Louis Jordan, 37, who was reported missing on January 29, told family members he survived by catching fish with his hands and drinking rain water, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
He was spotted drifting on his stricken sailboat — a 35-foot vessel called “Angel” — about 322 kilometers off the coast of North Carolina by the German tanker “Houston Express” and taken aboard.
A US Coast Guard helicopter then hoisted him to safety and took him to hospital, the statement said.
Frank Jordan, the sailor’s father, told CNN he did not know what had caused his son’s boat to break down.
In an audio clip released by the Coast Guard, the father asked his son how he was feeling.
“I’m doing fine now,” Louis Jordan said.
The son said he was not able to fix the boat and sail it back to South Carolina, from where he departed in January.
He said he worried every day that his parents were crying and believed he was dead.
“We were. I thought I lost you,” the father said.
US media reports said the boat had capsized and Jordan was found sitting on the upturned hull when he was plucked to safety.
His father told CNN he had never given up hope.
“I knew he had a good seaworthy boat,” he said.
“I felt the boat was going to keep him alive, so I had all sorts of worries because he’s not an experienced sailor.”
Jordan said he left the relative safety of the marina where the boat was moored to “go out and catch some fish.”
How he ended up so far off course is unknown.
“I called him at one point a few days after he left land ... and he was a few miles offshore. As far as how he got off track, I don’t know,” the father said.
In an audio recording broadcast on US media, the father thanked the skipper of the German vessel for saving his son.
The captain was not named.
“You are a good man, I swear. You did what you’re supposed to do and I sure do appreciate it and I know my son appreciates it,” Jordan senior said.
“It is a pleasure for us,” the skipper responded.
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