PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) – One of two sailors who washed overboard in rough seas hundreds of miles off the Virginia coast was found alive Monday and pulled to safety on a merchant ship, the Coast Guard said. The other sailor was found dead.

Lochlin Reidy, 58, from Woodbridge, Conn., was spotted about 4 a.m. after a Coast Guard plane saw a strobe light in the ocean about 400 miles east of Virginia Beach, said Officer Krys Hannum, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

He was found wearing a life jacket with the light and taken aboard the merchant vessel Sakura Express, a Panamanian-flagged tanker that was helping with the search.

Later Monday, Thomas Tighe, 65, from Patterson, N.Y., the boat’s captain, was found dead in the water.

The Sakura Express, with Reidy and the body of Tighe on board, was scheduled to sail into Boston Harbor this morning.

Three other sailors on the men’s 45-foot sailboat told authorities that Tighe and Reidy were preparing a life raft to evacuate the crew after the boat began taking on water from 16- to 20-foot waves when they washed overboard.

The three who stayed on the boat were rescued Sunday night and airlifted to Nantucket, Mass. Kelly Newlin, a Coast Guard spokeswoman in Boston, said they had no major injuries and were in good condition Monday.

The five were on a voyage from Bridgeport, Conn., to Bermuda when they encountered severe weather, including winds topping 35 mph. The Coast Guard picked up their electronic distress signal early Sunday.

The Coast Guard also rescued six people Saturday and Sunday off North Carolina after nasty weather battered their sailboats.