We know this for sure: 37-year-old Louis Jordan of South Carolina just spent a very unusual 66 days, and it culminated with a German ship picking off the top of his own capsized sailboat.
How he spent the time in between? Well despite the fact that he was widely reported to have been rescued after "66 days at sea," that is very much in dispute. Jordan says he spent those 66 days atop his captized boat, catching fish in dirty laundry and drinking rainwater. He says he lost 50 pounds during the ordeal and broke his shoulder. All this, he says, because his boat capsized while he slept during what was originally supposed to be a short fishing trip.
Is that what really happened? If so,
a lot of things here are weird:
By the time cameras caught up with him, Jordan, who claims his shoulder was broken when his boat overturned, wore a backpack, declined medical help and showed "no obvious signs of injury," according to the Daily Mail.
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, according to video footage published by the Daily Mail.
By the time he encountered a reporter from the Associated Press, he demonstrated a "firm handshake." However, his blue eyes, the story noted, were "weary-looking."
Even stranger, doubters pointed out, was his skin, which looked pale and unblemished, with only the slightest hint of sunburn, according to the Daily Mail.
"We were expecting worse with blisters and severe sunburn and dehydration," Petty Officer 3rd Class Kyle McCollum, who had the first contact with the sailor, told the AP.
A survival expert the Post interviewed for the story said Jordan would have been severely dehydrated after such a long time at sea, yet he didn't look like he was at all. Authorities apparently checked his bank account to see if there had been any activity during the 66 days he says he was at sea, and there was none. They're checking his credit card records too.
So what if that comes up clean? Is it possible that he could really have been stranded on this boat for 66 days and come through the experience looking as his rescuers described?
The three parts I'm having the hardest time with are the purported weight loss, the condition of his skin and the apparent lack of effects from dehydration. The weight issue is not so much that he didn't lose the weight as that he said he did, but clearly appeared not to have. I suppose it's possible that a guy who's been through a traumatic experienced just took a guess at how much weight he'd lost and was way off, but you mean to tell me you wouldn't know if you'd lost 50 pounds? As for the sunburn, I know that everybody has different skin. If that was me, I'd have been deep purple by the time they found me. I burn that easily. Maybe Jordan just has a different character of skin, but in 66 days at sea without any shade at all, you're going to get more than just the slightest hint of sunburn.
And what's this business about drinking water that "tastes like coconut milk"? Where'd he get it? Walgreens?
Now, could it all be true? He says he got through it with prayer. Could God have not only kept him alive but spared him the ravages of the experience? Sure. My experienc tends to be that when God lets you go through something, you
look like you've been through something, even as he sustains you and keeps you alive. But is it possible? Sure. God can do whatever He wants.
But that of course raises this question: If he wasn't on the boat, where was he? And how did he end up on it, capsized, 66 days later? I suppose there are endless possibilities. He could have taken the boat out of port in January, headed off for some secret destination he told no one about, paid cash and used a fake name, all the while knowing he was going to pull this fake capsize stunt at some point later and capitalize on the publicity to . . . what? Write a book? Sell his story for a movie?
What do you think? It's hard to believe he went through this ordeal and looked as good as everyone said he did. Almost as hard as believing he would make it up.
