Virginia couple missing at sea for 11 days is safe and needed no help getting home

A Virginia couple was positioned unscathed Friday, 11 days after their sailboat hit tough climate within the Atlantic Ocean and they might not be reached, officers mentioned.

Yanni Nikopoulos and Dale Jones, each 65 and from Virginia Beach, Virginia, mentioned the vessel they deliberate to sail to the Azores and on to Greece was struck by lightning, thwarting the journey however leaving them unhurt, the U.S. Coast Guard mentioned.

The pair radioed Coast Guard watchstanders in Virginia to say they’re alive and properly and en path to the boat’s home port in Hampton, Virginia, the Coast Guard mentioned in an announcement Friday.

The couple mentioned they rigged a spare sail after the lightning strike, the army department mentioned. The boat was not in misery, it mentioned.

The Coast Guard mentioned Friday the vessel was positioned 80 miles east of the barrier island city of Chincoteague, Virginia.

One of Jones’ daughters reported the couple’s scenario to the Coast Guard after, she mentioned, they reported crusing in tough climate about 460 miles east of the Virginia Coast on June 13, Terrell mentioned Tuesday.

The daughter, who was not named, informed rescuers the couple determined to go home after they confronted stormy seas. They weren’t near the Azores of Portugal once they sailed into inclement climate.

The pair had been incommunicado for days, even because the Coast Guard mentioned it might attempt to attain them by maritime radio. Earlier within the week, the army department flew an HC-130J plane over the realm the place the couple reported tough climate, however no proof of their voyage was discovered, officers mentioned.

They set sail June 8 from the Fort Monroe marina in Hampton on their boat the Kyklades, the Greek phrase used to explain circle of islands at the guts of the civilization in the course of the Bronze Age.

The couple was married or soon-to-be wed, in keeping with a submit on Jones’ Facebook web page a couple of mixture bon voyage occasion, sixty fifth birthday, and “wedding,” at the tip of May.

“It is truly wonderful the pair will be reunited with their friends and family soon,” James Cifers, operations unit watchstander within the Coast Guard’s Fifth District Command Center, which covers the Mid-Atlantic states, mentioned in Friday’s assertion.