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US sailor rescued after 66 days lost at sea

12:27, Friday, 03 April, 2015
US sailor rescued after 66 days lost at sea

A sailor who spent two months lost at sea has been rescued after apparently surviving on raw fish and rainwater.

Louis Jordan, 37, was found by a passing German tanker 200 miles off the North Carolina coast on Thursday.

His 35-foot sailboat had overturned and Mr Jordan 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, Mr Jordan apologises for not being able to sail home.

Speaking from the safety of the German container ship, he 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 Mr 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 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 Mr Jordan's father told CNN he had never given up hope his son would be found alive.

He was last seen on 23 January, 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 US media report that the mast was found snapped in half.

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