Man Missing for 66 Days Found Alive Off North Carolina Coast

LUCKY doesn’t begin to describe this guy

[B]Man Missing for 66 Days Found Alive Off North Carolina Coast[/B]

By Daniella Silva

A North Carolina man missing at sea for 66 days was rescued from his disabled sailboat about 200 miles off the state’s coast, the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday.

Louis Jordan, 37, was reported missing by his father on Jan. 29. Jordan had set sail on his 35-foot boat “Angel” on Jan. 23 from Bucks Port Marina in South Carolina and had not been in touch with his family, according to the Coast Guard.

Two months later, after an initial unsuccessful search, the Coast Guard said Thursday that Jordan had been found on his disabled boat by a German cargo ship some 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras off North Carolina.

The Coast Guard launched a Jayhawk helicopter crew to transport Jordan from the German ship to Sentara Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia — and said the missing sailor was in good condition.

Louis Jordan spoke to his father, Frank Jordan, for the time in more than two months in an emotional telephone call Thursday, audio from which was later released by the Coast Guard.

“I haven’t heard you in so long,” Louis Jordan tells his father. “Oh man, it’s nice to hear your voice,” Frank says. “People have been praying for you.”

Jordan seemed to lament the loss of his boat “Angel,” saying to his father: “I couldn’t fix it, I couldn’t sail back with my boat — I’m so sorry, it’s such a huge loss.”

“Hey Louis, you’re fine, son, I’m so glad that you’re alive,” Frank Jordan replies. “We prayed and prayed and we hoped that you were still alive. So, that’s all that matters.”

The Coast Guard said Jordan’s boat had capsized and damaged its mast when he was found. He allegedly survived by drinking rain water and eating raw fish, the Coast Guard said.

The helicopter crew landed at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital around 7:30 p.m. ET, where Jordan was able to stand up and walk to the hospital without assistance, according NBC affiliate WAVY.

The Miami Coast Guard had embarked on a unsuccessful 10-day search in February, after his family reported that Jordan was still missing on Feb. 7.

Jordan had never filed a “float plan” to indicate where he was going and when he would return, the Miami Coast Guard said.

“Without that it was hard to create a search pattern,” Miami Coast Guard spokeswoman Marilyn Fajardo said. “We did search and are happy he was found alive and will be reunited with his family.”

Damn right Capt. More luck than sense.

I doubt he celebrated at a sushi bar on his arrival…

…W…I…L…S…O…N… :o I saw an E-card recently about how we should remove all warning labels and let society sort itself out. Now this moron will be on morning TV, and get a book deal.

He looks like hes in great shape for someone that was gone for 66 days.

He looks too good.

[QUOTE=Nyla1;158510]He looks too good.[/QUOTE]

That sentiment has been oft repeated in the brief time he’s been “home”

Although his parents swear he was a chubby child who must have lost some 30-odd lbs on his odyssey.

Hes looking for a quick book deal:)

So he sails out of SC and only drifts 200 miles due east against wind and the Gulf Stream? For 2 months straight? He should have passed Canada by then.

And cant even manage to strew some ripped sails, cushoins and clothes together to send him downwind toward NJ at about 5 knots with the current?

100-200 miles off Hatteras is a very busy area. This sounds very very suspect.

Dude looks like he is ready to play football…Eating flour and rainwater?

I don’t believe a bit of it. I look worse after a 66 day hitch…without fighting off 2 months of hypothermia, dehydration and malnutrition. This dude is a blade.

No real sunburn, able to walk unaided, healthy for living on rain water, nobody picked up the boat on radar? Yeap, something fishy here.

Yeah…I too am beginning to be suspect of this guy’s story based on how he looks and how busy the waters are where he was supposedly drifting however there was an original search undertaken when he was first declared missing. With this being the case, then their a premeditated hoax with lots of planning aforethought.

I also wonder wtf is with his not telling anyone where he was going? Why did Miami CG conduct the search unless it was suspected he was going south. So using prevailing currents and winds even if he had sailed east from South Carolina to get out of the Gulf Steam before turning south, doesn’t explain where was was found? Surely the man will have to be telling a story which I would imagine will be easy for mariners like us to dissect.

Here’s one for the gCaptain staff: why aren’t you guys the experts called by the media when there is a marine related story? you need a good agent I think.

I’ll not be one standing in line to get the book… Movie tickets either. This whole thing wreaks of premeditation.

He’s on the news getting all defensive. Which means something’s up.

we’re not the only skeptics it appears

[B]Why skeptics think a South Carolina sailor lied about being lost at sea for 66 days[/B]

By Peter Holley April 5

Rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after 66 days at sea, sailor Louis Jordan speaks about drinking rainwater, getting sick from eating seaweed and more. (Reuters)

It’s rare that a man is lost at sea and returns home looking even healthier than before he disappeared.

But that’s exactly what skeptics of Louis Jordan have pointed out as they question the 37-year-old’s miraculous account of surviving 66 days adrift in the Atlantic Ocean.

‘God knows I am a truthful man,” Jordan told the Daily Mail in response to his doubters. “My family knows I am telling the truth. The people who know me know that.”

Jordan’s saga began Jan. 23, when he set sail from the marina in Conway, S.C., on a short fishing trip. He was reported missing six days later. A German tanker spotted him sitting atop his 35-foot-boat’s overturned hull 200 miles off the North Carolina coast on Thursday, a full 66 days after his disappearance.

By the time cameras caught up with him, Jordan, who claims his shoulder was broken when his boat overturned, wore a backpack, declined medical help and showed “no obvious signs of injury,” according to the Daily Mail.

Despite claiming to lose 50 pounds after his canned food ran out and he was reduced to raw fish, the amateur sailor appeared robust and upbeat as he exited a rescue helicopter and walked without assistance, according to video footage published by the Daily Mail.

By the time he encountered a reporter from the Associated Press, he demonstrated a “firm handshake.” However, his blue eyes, the story noted, were “weary-looking.”

Even stranger, doubters pointed out, was his skin, which looked pale and unblemished, with only the slightest hint of sunburn, according to the Daily Mail.

“We were expecting worse with blisters and severe sunburn and dehydration,” Petty Officer 3rd Class Kyle McCollum, who had the first contact with the sailor, told the AP.

Lt. Jack Shadwick, the co-pilot of the helicopter that carried Jordan back to land and one of the first people to see the sailor up close, agreed with his colleague’s assessment.

“He was in fairly good condition for a guy that you would normally expect to see after 60-plus days offshore,” he told the AP.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, survival expert Erik Kulik of the True North Wilderness Survival School appeared to echo those remarks.

“I would have expected him to be severely dehydrated,” Kulik said. “After that amount of time at sea, he would have been wobbly on his feet, and yet he seemed to walk perfectly. He says he broke his right shoulder, and yet he didn’t even seem to be guarding that shoulder in the pictures I saw after the rescue. There is a lot that doesn’t add up.”

McCollum told the AP that he examined Jordan’s shoulder during the rescue and noticed “slight bruising” on his right clavicle but that Jordan was moving the arm “fluidly” and without “any sign of pain in his face.”

Jordan told the Daily Mail that he has a simple answer about what happened to his shoulder: It healed.

“I have a bump, but it’s fine,” he said. “I feel no pain right now. After two months at sea, it healed.”

Jordan’s two-month ordeal was made stranger by his enthusiastic tales of getting iodine poisoning, sailing through swarms of glowing phosphorescent jellyfish at night and encountering two killer whales “with such beautiful faces, they looked so friendly.”

He told the newspaper that he survived by eating fish he caught by trailing dirty clothes in the ocean and by catching rainwater in a bucket, which he ultimately used for bathing. He said the water he drank tasted pretty good — like “coconut milk,” according to Yahoo News.

Authorities checked Jordan’s bank accounts to confirm that he didn’t withdraw money during his time offshore, according to the Daily Mail. Investigators also plan to review Jordan’s credit card and bank statements, the newspaper reported.

“We don’t have any reason to doubt him but nor can we confirm he spent all this time out there,” an unnamed U.S. Coast Guard spokesman told the Daily Mail. “We are looking forward to learning more about what exactly happened. We are as keen as anyone to find out the truth.”

Jordan told the Daily Mail that he attributes his survival to prayer, reading the Bible cover to cover and reviewing the End Time prophecies.

“I don’t mind being criticized,” he said. “To paraphrase the Bible: Fools hate to be criticized, but wise men love to be criticized.”

I say the guy had a plan to take the boat far offshore and drift around all nice and comfy with lots of wood and water then after enough time passed and a ship was close enough scuttle the boat beneath himself and claim he was derelict the whole time. Explains pretty much everything imo. Thought he’d get a movie deal out of it. Would love to examine the boat.

That would be my assessment as well.

[QUOTE=catherder;158789]He’s on the news getting all defensive. Which means something’s up.[/QUOTE]

Cat…is that a guy with a beard in your avatar?..if so then my fine lady you have got to do some changing right quick now! If it is a girl, why does she look like a guy with a beard?

would you please just go back to one of John McCain?

Hmmm, what started off as a heartwarming tale of human survival has definitely taken on an odor, and it’s not of mum’s home cooking. Well, your mum, mine was terrible, the smoke detector was the kitchen timer.

Levity aside, things just aren’t adding up. If you break ANYTHING in your body, you pretty much know it. Double or treble that for a crucial joint like a shoulder. One would assume you’d need all your limbs and associated joints in any survival situation; assuming any of those were broken, they’re not going to just magically heal with no ill effects.

Any of us who’ve been to sea for more than about, say, two days, will know how weary we can get even when fully healthy. The fact that this man was noted as having weary-looking eyes tells me nothing other than he may have been at sea for more than a day.

Questions about how anyone could have been on a disabled vessel for approximately two months off the Carolinas, and somehow completely missed the Gulf Stream, have already been raised. I’m going to go ahead and suggest it’s not due to his superior seamanship skills.