Sailor Lost At Sea For 66 Days Released From Hospital, Gives First Interview

A sailor lost at sea for 66 days was found alive on top of his capsized boat along the North Carolina coast. Louis Jordan, 37, was found on Thursday afternoon when a German ship just happened to pass by the sailor’s location.

Louis Jordan, who had set sail on a fishing excursion along the North Carolina coast 66 days ago, was found about 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras. His sailboat, Angel, had lost its mast and capsized. The sailor’s rescuers found him sitting on the capsized hull, frantically waving his arms to get their attention.

During an interview on the Today show, the sailor lost at sea for 66 days said, “They saw me on the front of my boat standing up there waving my arms and they turned that huge skyscraper around.”

During the interview, Jordan noted that it felt “a lot longer than 66 days” since his boat Angel capsized.

A Coast Guard helicopter team flew to the area where Louis Jordan was found and airlifted him to a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia. Even though the sailor had been lost at sea for 66 days, he was in fairly good health. Louis Jordan suffered from both dehydration and a broken collarbone. The sailor said that he waited for his shoulder to heal at least a little bit and tried to build up enough strength to build a makeshift mast and sail to land. Being injured and weak, Jordan was unable to fight the strong ocean current and his boat capsized two more times during his 66 days lost at sea.

The sailor managed to sustain himself by eating raw fish and drinking rain water. The fish would “swim through his clothes” and were then scooped up with a hand net. Jordan discovered that the fish were intrigued by his clothing when he dangled the items into the water for cleaning. The rescued sailor was able to walk into the Virginia hospital on his own. Jordan was released from the hospital on Friday morning.

Once Louis Jordan had his feet back on dry land, he was quickly reunited with his overjoyed parents. While he was lost at sea for 66 days, the sailor said he dreamed of eating organic ice cream and barbecue.

“I was just just praying about you because I was afraid you guys were crying and sad, that you know, I was dead. And I wasn’t dead,” Louis Jordan reportedly told his father during the emotional reunion, to which his father, Frank Jordan, replied, “I thought I lost you.”

Jordan’s mother, Norma Davis, said that she had given up hope “many times” during the past 66 days, adding, “It’s been terrible. You live moment to moment and those moments turn into days.”

Do you think you could survive being lost at sea 66 days like sailor Louis Jordan?

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