UPDATED: Sailor missing for 66 days rescued off Cape Hatteras…WITH AUDIO AND VIDEO

A 37-year-old South Carolina sailor, who was reported missing in late January, tonight walked into a Norfolk, Va., hospital after his rescue by the U.S. Coast Guard about 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras.

The sailor, Louis Jordan, apparently suffered only a shoulder injury during the ordeal on his 35-foot sailboat, Angel.

The Coast Guard said its 5th District Command Center in Portsmouth, Va.,  received a call from the German-flagged ship, Houston Express, about 1:30 p.m. this afternoon that the crew had found Jordan clinging to the hull of his 35-foot boat and had taken him aboard.

A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew was launched from Air Station Elizabeth City, N. C., at approximately 3:40 p.m. The helicopter flew to the Houston Express, hoisted Jordan aboard, and transported him to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where he arrived about 7:30 p.m.

“People have been praying for you,” the sailor’s father, Frank Jordan, told him in a recorded phone call today released by the Coast Guard.

“I was just praying about you,” his son replied, “because I was afraid that you guys were crying and sad that, you know, I was dead.”

Jordan also talked to his father about his sailboat.

“I couldn’t fix it,” he said, without saying what had happened. “I couldn’t sail it back. I’m so sorry.  It’s such a big loss.”

His father dismissed the concern.

The sailor also told his rescuers that he had been catching fish and eating them.

Jordan was last seen leaving Bucksport Plantation Marina in Conway, S.C., on Jan.23, in his sailboat, Angel.  He had been working on it there for some time.

The Coast Guard says he was reported missing by his family on Jan. 29.

According to an Associated Press report, Jordan’s mother, Norma Davis of Jacksonville, N.C., said he had told the family he was “going into the open water to sail and do some fishing.”

The Coast Guard put out an alert to look for the sailor and his boat. The family had posted flyers, including one at Teach’s Lair Marina, seeking information.  However, there was no news until today.

“We expected him to come back and he did not return,” his mother told the Associated Press. “We knew something happened. To us, it’s just a miracle. We’re just so thrilled he was found alive.”

Frank Jordan said in the call with his son that both mother and father were headed to the Norfolk hospital to be with him.

The elder Jordan also spoke with the captain of the Houston Express and told him, “You’re a good man….I swear it’s a beautiful world.”

Click here to see a video of the Coast Guard airlifting sailor Louis Jordan off the boat that rescued him.

Click here to hear the audio of sailor Louis Jordan’s phone call with his father.

Click here to hear the audio of Frank Jordan’s phone call with the captain of the vessel that found his son.