Coast Guard: Overdue sailors are safe, on course to Virginia

Two people reported overdue after deciding to return to Virginia in their weather-damaged sailboat instead of continuing their trip to Portugal's Azores are safely headed home, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Friday.

Virginia Beach natives Yanni Nikopoulos and Dale Jones, both 65, contacted the Coast Guard on Friday saying they were safe and on course for Hampton, Virginia. They were about 80 miles (129 kilometers) east of Chincoteague, but weren't in distress and didn't request assistance, the Coast Guard said in a news release.

They had left Hampton, Virginia, on June 8 on the 36-foot (11-meter) sailboat Kyklades for the Azores Islands, a mid-Atlantic archipelago about 800 mi (1,290 kilometers) west of Portugal, the Coast Guard said.