Nathan Carman told the U.S. Coast Guard that when the boat he was on with his mother started taking on water in the Atlantic Ocean and he got into a life raft, he looked for her but couldn't find her, the Coast Guard said Monday. 
 
 Carman, 22, who grew up in Middletown and now lives in Vermont, was rescued Sunday about 100 nautical miles south of Martha's Vineyard by a passing freighter. His mother, Linda Carman, 54, of Middletown, has not been located. 
 
 The two had been in a 31-foot aluminum boat, leaving Point Judith, R.I., late on Sept. 17 for a fishing trip. They did not return as scheduled Sept. 18, and the Coast Guard searched a huge area over six days for the vessel. 
 
 Nathan Carman told the Coast Guard the boat sank Sept. 18 in deep water near Block Canyon off the coast of New York, said Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class Nicole Groll. When he was picked up, Linda Carman was not with him, Groll said. 
 
 When the boat started taking on water he "looked for her but did not find her," Groll said. 
 
 The Coast Guard had no plans to renew its search, suspended last Friday. Groll said the location Nathan Carman gave where the boat sank is in deep water where there is no feasible recovery option. 
 
 Shawn R. Beals Linda Carman's Middletown home. Linda Carman's Middletown home. (Shawn R. Beals) (Shawn R. Beals) 
 
 Groll said the mother's disappearance was "beyond the survivability window," a determination that takes into account time passed, water conditions, the availability of food and drinkable water, and other factors. 
 
 "A decision to suspend a case is never easy," she said. "However, we are not going to reopen the search for Linda Carman." 
 
 Nathan Carman was found in a raft that had been part of the boat's safety equipment, Groll said. The area where the raft was found had been covered in the earlier search, she said. 
 
 "We searched over 62,000 nautical miles. We were extremely thorough," Groll said. "We searched until all possible avenues were exhausted." 
 
 Nathan Carman, reported to be in good condition, was picked up by the freighter Orient Lucky, now heading to Boston, Groll said. The freighter is from Shandong, China, but Groll did not know its origin or destination at the time it picked him up. 
 
 The freighter will be met by Coast Guard officials when it arrives Tuesday evening, she said. 
 
 Hartford attorney Hubert Santos said his firm also plans to have someone there. 
 
 "We are Nathan Carman's attorneys and we are trying to reach him and we plan on having someone in Boston when the boat docks," said Santos, who said he has previously represented Nathan Carman in another matter. 
 
 Santos said his office has contacted the U.S. Coast Guard as well as U.S. Attorney's offices in Connecticut and Massachusetts to let them know that whether "he needs a lawyer or not" Carman has an attorney who wants to be present before any interviews are done. 
 
 The Carmans left Port Judith, R.I., in a 32-foot aluminum boat called the Chicken Pox late on a Saturday, Sept. 17. 
 
 Nathan Carman, who grew up in Middletown and lives in Vermont, and his mother told friends they were going to Block Island to fish and would return the morning of Sept. 18. 
 
 Sharon Hartstein, Linda Carman's close friend, said Monday that family members were making arrangements to meet Nathan Carman when the Coast Guard releases him. She also said Linda Carman's family was planning to offer a reward for information about Linda and the boat "to find out what happened." 
 
 The search for the two began Sept. 18 and by Tuesday had expanded to an 11,000-square-mile area of the ocean, "roughly twice the size of Connecticut," the Coast Guard said. 
 
 Search vessels from Maine and New York and aircraft from Cape Cod and North Carolina were involved. The Coast Guard announced Friday that it was suspending the search. 
 
 Hartstein said Nathan Carman moved to Vermont in recent years and met up with his mother regularly to go fishing off the coast. 
 
 "Linda and Nathan go out at least monthly," she said. "They like to fish." 
 
 Hartstein said the two usually leave the marina late at night or early in the morning — sometimes 2 or 3 a.m. — to fish. 
 
 Hartstein said Carman's sisters were communicating regularly with the Coast Guard, and Hartstein has also been in touch with Clark Carman, Nathan's father and Linda's ex-husband, who lives in California. 
 
 Nathan Carman in 2011 was the subject of a multistate search when he unexpectedly left town at 17 years old and turned up four days later in Virginia. 
 
 Courant Staff Writers Dave Altimari and Christine Dempsey contributed to this story. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video 
 
 BOSTON, Mass. -- The U.S. Coast Guard has confirmed that one of two Middletown missing boaters has been found alive. 
 
 Nathan Carman was found Sunday drifting at sea by a freighter. He was in good condition and was coming back to an undisclosed port. There was no information about the whereabouts of his mother, Linda. 
 
 The Coast Guard in Boston says Nathan Carman was found by a freighter on Sunday about 100 nautical miles south of Martha's Vineyard. 
 
 “Good to go,” Coast Guard representatives in Boston said. He was not suffering from life threatening injuries, which is why he’s staying on the freighter. 
 
 He was found on a four person inflatable life raft that is required safety equipment 
 
 The family has been notified. 
 
 Saturday night, friends held a vigil for the Carman's at Linda's home. 
 
 For about a week, the Coast Guard searched roughly 60,000 square miles for Linda Carman and her son Nathan. 
 
 Last Sunday at 6:30 p.m., the Coast Guard got a report that Linda Carman, 54, and her son Nathan, 22, both from Middletown, Connecticut, didn't return from an offshore fishing trip. They were due back Sunday at 9 a.m., a friend of Linda's said. 
 
 Nathan now lives in Vermont, but grew up in Middletown. They left from Ram's Point Marina in Point Judith, Rhode Island on Saturday evening. According to Monte Montegrio, a friend of Linda's who also lives with her, Linda and Nathan frequently meet up to go fishing since Nathan moved out, and the pair are very experienced fishers. They've traveled as far as Alaska for fishing trips in the past. 
 
 Nathan has Aspberger's syndrome and previously went missing in 2011 after the loss of his beloved horse. He was found in Virginia a few days later and was unharmed. 
 
 After that incident, Gov. Dan Malloy declared August 23 "Missing Persons Day" in the state to support families of those who have disappeared. The day was in honor of Nathan, as well as Isabella Oleschuck, another person who went missing but was found safe in 2011. The Office of the Victim Advocate said the day is intended to remind people that you do not have to wait 24 hours to file a missing persons report. ||||| BLOCK ISLAND, R.I. (CBS) — One of two missing boaters was found alive Sunday, just days after the Coast Guard suspended its weeklong search for the pair. 
 
 Linda Carman, 54, and her son Nathan Carman, 22, went missing on Sept. 18 after going out on a fishing trip near Block Island. They departed from Point Judith in a 32-foot center console boat. 
 
 The Coast Guard suspended their search for the pair on Friday after searching over 62,000 square nautical miles, an area larger than the state of Georgia. 
 
 A freighter about 100 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard spotted Nathan Carman floating on a life raft on Sunday and brought him aboard. He is expected to return to shore on Tuesday. 
 
 Nathan Carman is in good condition, according to the Coast Guard. Linda Carman remains missing.
– A missing 22-year-old boater who'd been given up for dead is safe and sound aboard an ocean freighter that spotted his life raft. His mother, however, remains lost at sea. Nathan and Linda Carman went missing on Sept. 18 after setting off from Rhode Island on a fishing trip in their 32-foot boat. The Coast Guard searched more than 60,000 square nautical miles, an area bigger than Georgia, before suspending its hunt on Friday, reports CBS Boston. On Sunday, however, a freighter about 100 miles south of Martha's Vineyard picked up Nathan in a four-person inflatable raft. He's in good condition, so much so that he will remain on the ship until it reaches land on Tuesday. It remains unclear what happened or whether there's a chance 54-year-old Linda Carman is alive. "She was not in the raft," says a Coast Guard spokesperson, per the Hartford Courant. "The whole situation is under investigation." The Carmans regularly went out fishing along the coast, perhaps once a month, says a family friend. Nathan lives in Vermont and Linda in Connecticut. Nathan, who has Asperger's, was the focus of a previous search mission in 2011, reports Fox61. He disappeared at age 17 from Connecticut after the loss of his horse and turned up four days later in Virginia. In fact, Connecticut declared a Missing Person's Day after the incident, a move in honor of Nathan and a woman who went missing in a separate incident. (This boater survived thanks to skills that would have impressed MacGyver.)