Man Incredibly Survives After Storm Leaves Him Lost At Sea For 66 Days

An American sailor survived 66 days at sea after his boat capsized.

According to NBC News, 36-year-old Louis Jordan set out for a fishing trip on Jan. 23.

He left the Bucksport Plantation Marina in Conway, South Carolina aboard Angel, his 1950s-era sailboat.

Jordan, who calls himself an "inexperienced sailor," was on his way to the Gulf Stream in search of big fish when a storm hit.

Jordan told "TODAY,"

On the way there, my boat capsized. I was actually sleeping, that's when it happened. The whole boat had turned around and I was flying through the air somersaulting and the ceiling was the floor and the floor was the ceiling and this side was the other side and everything was upside down and backwards.

The storm's massive waves threw Jordan into a wall where he broke his collarbone.

His communication equipment along with Angel's mast had also broken.

Jordan prayed for help and read his Bible all the way through, but it was his own survival tactics that kept him alive.

He carefully rationed his food supply, drank rain water he caught in a bucket and ate raw fish.

Catching food was difficult at first, Jordan said, until he figured out the fish would swim near him when he put his clothes in the water to clean them, Daily Mail reports.

So he used the clothes as bait and then trapped the fish with a small net.

Jordan's father reported him missing on Jan. 29 after not hearing from his son in about a week.

The Coast Guard began searching on Feb. 8, but quit after 10 days largely because Jordan didn't file a "float plan," which is a boat's version of a flight plan.

Rescuers didn't know what path he took or where he was heading and, therefore, had no idea where to look.

It was a German cargo ship that found Jordan at 1:30 pm on Thursday.

He was floating atop his overturned ship about 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina.

Jordan said,

They saw me on the front of my boat standing up there waving my arms. And they turned that huge skyscraper around.

The Coast Guard airlifted Jordan to a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia.

He was released just one day later because, aside from his broken collarbone and dehydration, Jordan was in remarkable condition considering what he had been through.

Citations: Louis Jordan Recounts 66 Day Ordeal Lost at Sea on Fishing Trip (NBC News), Man who went missing at sea SIXTY SIX days ago is found by chance living on top of his capsized boat 200 miles off North Carolina after surviving on a diet of raw fish and rain water (Daily Mail)