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.”
April 6, 2015
"Why skeptics think a South Carolina sailor lied about being lost at sea for 66 days."
"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.... his skin... looked pale and unblemished...."
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The original reporter was so incurious that it almost seemed as if he were bucking for a job reporting on Hillary scandals for the national media.
His story sounds like a hybrid of "Unbroken" and "Life of Pi".
I like the part about the smiling killer whales off the Carolina coast.
Unless he weighed 300 pounds when he went missing, he looks to be in awfully good shape.
What did he use for drinking water for 66 days?
Still, the German tanker "did spot him sitting atop his 35-foot-boat’s overturned hull 200 miles off the North Carolina coast." If it's a hoax, it is a pretty elaborate and dangerous one. I am inclined to believe him. He should join Aron Ralston on the Man Law commercials if they ever bring them back.
"did spot him sitting atop his 35-foot-boat’s overturned hull 200 miles off the North Carolina coast."
I am betting that little tidbit comes third hand. I bet nobody talked to the actual crew about what condition the boat was in. Sailboats have those keels that makes that so unlikely it makes the whole story seem improbable, never mind the Life of Pi stuff, which could be understood as some kind of delirium. Were the boat right side up, but inoperable, it might seem a lot more possible.
I never even read anywhere where he sailed from.
He is...the most interesting man in the world.
I like the idea of news reporting that tends to undermine a story as it is first published. Rolling Stone should try it.
I never even read anywhere where he sailed from.
I think I read Charleston SC, in which case the distance he traveled wasn't much.
Wasn't there a story about a suspected "lost at sea" hoaxer a few months ago?
Ah yes, José Salvador Alvarenga. Mexican fisherman who turned up in the Marshall Islands after more than a year at sea.
He wasn't in an open boat, so he wasn't subject to debilitating sunburn or salt-water sores. A 35-foot yacht can catch a lot of rainwater, which is what he claimed he drank. Basically he was on a monthlong seafood diet, which is pretty darned healthy compared to what you typically eat ashore. He doesn't seem to have had much of any tools or supplies onboard for making a jury mast or sail, which is rather poor preparation for sea travel.
He wasn't in an open boat, so he wasn't subject to debilitating sunburn or salt-water sores. A 35-foot yacht can catch a lot of rainwater, which is what he claimed he drank.
This may all be true, probably is, but the original story had him clinging to the overturned hull of his boat. That's why I think that lousy reporting of the story at first is what is causing all of the speculation.
Plus the proclamations of his unapologetic Christianity painted a target on him right away.
He spoke like a bullshitter.
He should have added that he was sexually assaulted by a group of frat boys on spring break who came and went in a big, carbon belching, motor yacht.
How is it not re-traumatizing to him to question his story?
I don't believe the story from what I have read so far. For a true story here is one.
These are well documented and most offshore sailors read these for advice just in case. A 35 foot sailboat will not stay capsized. At that size they all have keels.
The Yahoo News story has a photo of the sailboat and some comments suggest it was dismasted but upright.
This is a weird story and I expect it to be debunked.
Say the story is a hoax. So what? Besides the Coast Guard folks who initially looked for him in January and who picked him up,* what skin has been rubbed off anyone's nose.
*Besides, they're on duty and paid whether rescue efforts are needed or not.
Michael K said...
This is a weird story and I expect it to be debunked.
As others have noted, if the boat was only dismasted, as more recent reports suggest, then there is no mystery here.
There's a lot of things we "expect" that might not be true.
For example, a lot of people doubted George Zimmerman because he didn't look the way they expected the victim of a beating to look.
In my own life, I once helped an at-term pregnant woman out her minivan after she rolled it. One of my acquaintances doubted my story, because the pregnant woman should have immediately gone into labor. And on TV or in a movie that might well have happened.
MadisonMan said...
I never even read anywhere where he sailed from.
I think I read Charleston SC, in which case the distance he traveled wasn't much.
Given that he was in the Gulf Stream I would think that he would have been hundreds of miles from SC after 66 days.
This story smells bad.
A 35-foot yacht can catch a lot of rainwater,
Again I doubt it. The deck of a sailboat is designed to shed water.
Call in Rolling Stone. They will sort it out.
"I never even read anywhere where he sailed from."
There is some speculation that he sailed from his wife.
I believe the reason we think killer whales don't attack and eat people in the wild is that they don't let themselves get caught at it.
Despite claiming to lose 50 pounds after his canned food ran out and he was reduced to raw fish...e
...reduced to raw fish? That sounds fishy.
I want the story to be true. One of every five women is raped. Hillary deleted only the emails we don't care about. Rolling Stone is sorry they published the story. I am tired of hearing that nothing fabulous is true.
He was frying pancakes in oil, but eating raw fish?
Be thirsty my friends!
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Curious George said...
He is...the most interesting man in the world.
He left from Conway SC, just next door to Myrtle Beach. I was suspicious when I saw his photo. Wherever it was he was, he was not exposed to the elements for 66 days. The story has been corrected that the boat had been de-masted, not hull up. However, there are such things as marine radios, GPSs, and emergency locator beacons.
There's more to learn here.
Then there is the story of ex-NFLer Rob Konrad swimming ashore after falling overboard off the South Florida coast. He supposedly swam 27 miles in 16 hours.
Konrad was later diagnosed with hypothermia, severe dehydration and rhabdomyolysis, which is a breakdown of muscle fibers - but that didn't stop the 38 year-old from swimming , alternating between the backstoke and the breaststoke.
Note to self: If you get lost at sea for two months make sure you look like it when you get rescued. I have no problem with people questioning this but what consequence does this have? What's the possible sham he is trying to pull? Get his own TV show? He deserves one if his tale is true and if it isn't he should be given a high appointment in the barry administration.
The article tells how he caught fish and drank rain water he captured with buckets. That leaves just his lack of sun burn which he could have achieved through keeping well covered and it being winter that would have been expected. I think it is plausible. Most people lost at sea are novices so I understand rescuers expectations of what a typical rescued person should look like but not all lost at sea people are equal in their abilities.
I'm not accusing anyone of being a lost at sea denier and a lost at sea epidemic denier... at least not yet ;-)
What happened to him is not that amazing or incredible. People have had boating and shipping accidents, and have survived at sea before, many, many times through history.
He claims to have seen whales and jellyfish in his ordeal. Well, knock me down with a feather. Who would have thought you'd see those if you drifted at sea for two months?
I can't understand the skepticism here.
The article tells how he caught fish and drank rain water he captured with buckets.
Next time it rains stick a bucket outside. Now make that the only water you drink until it rains again.
This story stinks like a liberal.
Rusty:
You can make a funnel so it collects more. Also it could have rained a lot. The time frame was winter/early spring which would make it mild temps so he wouldn't lose much through sweating, also, fish have water in them. The fact that he was overweight and lost 50 lbs of fat which is also 2/3rds water by weight.
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