A US man missing at sea for more than two months was celebrating a miraculous rescue on Thursday after being picked up by a passing ship and airlifted to land, the US Coast Guard said.
Louis Jordan, 37, who was reported missing on January 29, told family members he survived by catching fish with his hands and drinking rain water, according to the Coast Guard.
He was spotted drifting on his stricken sailboat – a 35 foot vessel called Angel – approximately 200 miles (322 kilometers) off the coast of North Carolina by the German-registered Houston Express tanker and taken aboard.
A US Coast Guard helicopter then hoisted him to safety back to a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, a statement said.
Frank Jordan, the sailor’s father, told CNN he did not know what had caused his son’s boat to break down.
In an audio clip released by the Coast Guard, the father asks the son how he is feeling.
“I’m doing fine now,” Louis Jordan says.
