Man Recuperating After Being Rescued By Coast Guard From Uninhabited Island In Bahamas
(CBS) -- A 39-year-old man with ties to Illinois is recuperating at a Key West, Florida, hospital - after being rescued last night from a small island in the Bahamas.
The odyssey of Larry Sutterfield began a week ago.
The Coast Guard says he told them he set out from Marathon, Florida, on a small raft to go camping on one of the keys.
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And his raft became disabled. And he was carried out to sea.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios tells WBBM Sutterfield spent five days at sea - and finally ended up on a small uninhabited island of the Bahamas - about 80 miles from Marathon, Florida.
Sutterfield was on the island for more than a day, Rios says. And then - just by chance - a coast guard plane spotted the fire he had set and spotted him waving his arms.
"I would say he was pretty lucky, for the main reason that nobody called regarding his whereabouts. Nobody said there was a missing person... It happened to be we had an aircraft that was up doing regular law enforcement patrols and they were the ones that found him and they were able to safely coordinate the safe recovery of him."
Rios says Sutterfield was rescued and taken to a hospital in Key West, where we're told he's in fair condition.
Sutterfield told the coast guard he is from Illinois.
