Louis Jordan, who spent 66 days lost at sea, has been rescued after apparently surviving on raw fish and rainwater.
The 37-year-old sailor was found by a passing German tanker 200 miles off the North Carolina coast on April 2.
Louis Jordan’s 35-foot sailboat had overturned and he was sitting on the hull, from where he was hoisted to safety.
His family reported him missing at the end of January, and when his father spoke to him after the rescue, he said: “I thought I lost you.”
In an audio clip of the phone call, Louis Jordan apologizes for not being able to sail home.
Speaking from the safety of the German container ship, Louis Jordan tells his father: “I’m doing fine now.”
Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss from the Coast Guard in Miami told WITN, a North Carolina broadcaster, that Louis Jordan had survived adrift in the Atlantic Ocean on a diet of raw fish and rainwater.
The US Coast Guard said in a statement that they transported Louis Jordan by helicopter from the German vessel, Houston Express, to a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia.
They said such a feat of endurance was unheard of, but Louis Jordan’s father told CNN he had never given up hope his son would be found alive.
Louis Jordan was last seen on January 23, setting out from Conway in South Carolina on a fishing trip in his sailboat Angel.
It is not yet known why the boat capsized, although media report that the mast was found snapped in half.
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