Hi All:
My friend’s dad is lost at sea. She asked me to post here. He’s some 1,000 miles from land, en route from Mexico to Hiva Oa in French Polynesia. He is single-handing his 36-foot union cutter, Celebration. (Call sign: WDJ4510.)
His vessel departed Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on May 2 with an estimated arrival date of June 26. On May 28, he sent a message at 4:30 am PST about another boat’s crew (temporarily) boarding and taking over his steering earlier that morning around 2:30 am PST. He was concerned he was being kidnapped. He wrote several times that day with his last message at 9:30 p.m. They have not heard from him since. The messages were increasingly worrisome and out of character. He was very paranoid that the kidnappers were listening to him and he was a bit frantic to escape them.
His last reported position via Delorme tracker was 06 53N 127 35W course 247T AT 0.7 TO 1.1 knots. He is possibly suffering from the affects of sleep deprivation.
His vessel is equipped with marine VHF and SSB and is possibly monitoring distress and calling frequency 8291 kilohertz. He is well stocked with food and is equipped with a desalinator, fishing gear and a manual EPIRB.
The U.S. Coast Guard has been notified. They did an initial search based off his last known location via a fishing boat equipped with a helicopter. They’re hoping to finish the search area–it’s about 5,000 square miles–with the help of any boats in the area.
Any vessels with information are requested to email contact Honolulu’s U.S. Coast at 808-535 3333 or email JRCCHONOLULU@USCG.MIL.
If anyone here has connections to search and rescue assets, cruisers or friends who are in the South Pacific, connections to fishing fleets or cruise ships or other ideas, please let me know and I’ll pass along the message to the family.
Thank you