Sailor missing at sea for 66 days found in good health

Adrift on the ocean, the mast of his 35-foot sailboat torn away, Louis Jordan caught rainwater in a bucket, scooped up fish that were attracted to the laundry he hung over the side, and fervently prayed to God for help.

After 66 days missing at sea, he was rescued by a passing German freighter and brought ashore by the Coast Guard in good condition.

Early Friday, just hours later, the bearded 37-yearold man walked out of the Norfolk hospital where he was reluctantly taken, showing no obvious ill effects.

“We were expecting worse, with blisters and severe sunburn and dehydration,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Kyle McCollum, a member of the helicopter crew that brought Jordan to shore.

Jordan hadn’t been heard from since Jan. 23, when he set out on a fishing expedition aboard the single-masted 1950s-era sailboat that had been his home for months at a marina in South Carolina.

It was unclear how long after leaving port that the boat was damaged, the Coast Guard said.

Jordan was plucked from the Atlantic about 200 miles off the North Carolina coast Thursday afternoon after furiously waving down the container ship.

His boat was upright, but the mast had broken off in heavy weather, and the vessel appeared to have flipped over repeatedly, said Thomas Grenz, captain of the German container ship.

Jordan asked his Coast Guard rescuers to drop him off without seeking medical care, but he was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

He demonstrated a firm handshake and wearylooking blue eyes before declining an interview with The Associated Press on Friday.

In interviews with other news organizations, he described making pancakes out of flour fried in oil, collecting rainwater with a bucket, and using a net to catch fish that would swim in and out of his clothes when he put them over the side to rinse them.

He told WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Virginia, that he rationed his water to about a pint a day.

“Every day I was like, ‘Please God, send me some rain, send me some water,’” he said.