real life castaway rescued off the obx

coast guard helicopter
coast guard helicopter. photo courtesy us coast guard

They don’t call it the Graveyard of the Atlantic for nothing. After 66 days adrift, perched on the top of his overturned boat, Louis Jordan was plucked from the sea by the US Coast Guard, 200 miles off the Outer Banks. We loved this piece by Michael E. Miller for The Washington Post, that details the dramatic story of how this lucky sailor survived on rainwater, raw fish and prayers.

shipwrecked sailor on dry land at last
Louis Jordan, left, arrives at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital Thursday night. (USCG Petty Officer 2nd Class Walter Shinn) Photo courtesy Outer Banks Voice.

“On Thursday, a bearded, sunburned and dehydrated Jordan was rescued from atop his ruined boat. He had been missing for 66 days, during which his family had feared him drowned. Jordan told the Coast Guard that he had survived on rainwater and raw fish.

The only other nourishment he had was spiritual. In a phone call to his father after his dramatic rescue, Jordan said he had prayed for himself and his family. His father answered that he, too, “prayed and prayed” for his son’s safe return.

“It’s amazing,” Jordan’s mother, Norma Davis, told the Associated Press. “It’s been very difficult not knowing anything and I just feel like all of our prayers have come true. They’ve been answered.”’

[box type=”bio”] Discovered how Jordan survived being lost at sea on The Washington Post![/box]