Missing man rescued after 66 days stranded at sea
PORTSMOUTH, Va. -- A man missing since January has been rescued from a disabled vessel floating 200 miles of the coast of North Carolina by sailors who spotted the his boat.
Reported missing on Jan. 29 by his father, the man identified as Louis Jordan, 37, was spotted by the crew of the Houston Express, a German-flagged container ship. They reported seeing Jordan on his sailboat Angel off the coast of Cape Hatteras and took him aboard.
He was later flown by helicopter to a hospital in Norfolk, Va., CBS News affiliate WRAL reported.
Jordan had last been seen at a Conway, S.C., marina on Jan. 23. and an alert to the sailing community was sent out requesting they remain on the lookout for him.
Coast Guard personnel contacted ports from Miami to New Jersey in search of Jordan.
"We didn't know where he was going," Ryan Doss, Coast Guard spokesman told the Raleigh News & Observer. "Without that critical piece of information, a good portion of the Atlantic Ocean becomes your search area."
But he was not seen until the Houston Express crew saw him and notified the Coast Guard.
He told his rescuers that he survived by catching fish and drinking rain water, CBS News reported. He appeared to have an injured shoulder.
Details are unclear on what caused Jordan's boat to become disabled, but Coast Guard officials said they would be debriefing him. CBS News affiliate WTKR reports he is in good condition.