Missing Vessel (Northern California), 4 souls

[Cormorant]

One thing that might indicate a hoax is that in the first call they said water was coming in and their electronics were failing. Then it turns out they have no GPS. Which means they are the most minimalist of cruisers. (Not to mention no dinghy, which is just nuts.) Their only electronics seem to be the VHF . . . which they're actually using, and which they use again an hour later just before abandoning ship. So why would they say the electronics are failing? Could've been a hoaxster's premature set-up of his eventual vanishing. Damn . . . I sure hope this is a hoax.

[Dexterbase]

My boat is moored about a hundred meters from the Cutter Hawksbill in the Monterey Harbor.

I was sitting in my cockpit enjoying a beer when I saw a Coast Guard lifeboat headed out with a sense of urgency. I flipped on the VHF and heard the Coast guard advising the crew to stay with the vessel for as long as possible.

Then:

Coast Guard giving a position to Vessel Assist out of Santa Cruz and advising that was not the position of the vessel, but a waypoint to set a heading from to search.

Then the crew informing the Coast Guard that they were abandoning the vessel.

Coast Guard telling the crew to "Go ahead and fire your flare now"

Coast Guard helicopter on station but no visual.

Then PON PON. 29 foot sailing vessel dead in the water, taking on water. Four people on board, two adults, two children under 8. Crew abandoning the vessel.

PON PON repeated throughout the night.

I finally flipped the VHF off and couldn't sleep at all.

[Red Sky]

Lets all hope that this is some kind of sick hoax, unfortunately it's beginning to look less likely. The new location, 65 miles off of Monterey, is reportedly being deduced by VHF and radar information. 6 hours now since the abandon ship call, 50 deg. water, doesn't look good.

[Cormorant]

So you could hear the transmissions from the boat in distress?

[Dexterbase]

Originally Posted by Red Sky

Lets all hope that this is some kind of sick hoax, unfortunately it's beginning to look less likely. The new location, 65 miles off of Monterey, is reportedly being deduced by VHF and radar information. 6 hours now since the abandon ship call, 50 deg. water, doesn't look good.

I heard the abandon ship call at about 1730 last night. That makes it about 15 hours.

[Dexterbase]

Originally Posted by Cormorant

So you could hear the transmissions from the boat in distress?

No, only the coast guard reiterating the messages. It sounded like the transmissions from the vessel were broken.

[Red Sky]

Sorry guys my foggy brain heard 3:30 am, not the correct time. If its not a hoax, 15+ hours, time's probably already run out for these poor souls.

[fstbttms]

Originally Posted by Red Sky

Sorry guys my foggy brain heard 3:30 am, not the correct time. If its not a hoax, 15+ hours, time's probably already run out for these poor souls.

Survival time in the conditions that exist off the Northern California coast right now are about 12 hours for adults, about half that for small children. That does not even take into account the rough sea state.

[Khagan1227]

I agree with Boatsman on the capibility of smaller boats, but to be off shore 65 miles, no dinghy, no liferaft and appearantly no epirb = INSANE.

If one includes the children into the equation, seems almost criminal.

If they couldn't afford basic safety equipment, I doubt they would have wetsuits or survival suits either.

Very, very sad.

[snort]

I can't think of any reason why, with two small kids aboard, they would venture so far from the coast. If it's a delivery from SF to SD and all adults on board, then it might make sense, but not the scenario presented.

[fstbttms]

Reasons why this may be a hoax:

1.- 65 miles offshore in a small boat with 2 little kids in rough conditions in the middle of winter with no EPIRB, liferaft or PFDs? Who does that?

2.- "Electronics" conveniently failing. No further response necessary on the part of the hoaxer.

3.- Nobody has reported a boat and crew overdue.

4.- The CG does not know the boat's departure point or destination.

[category4jay]

ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH MARKJ.

[perchance]

If this a hoax and I hope it is not it certainly isn't the first as there was one recently off the coast of new Jersey and there is some clown on the Detroit River sending out distress calls on a regular basis.
The penalty is ten years and a $250k fine for issuing a false distress call.

[GeoPowers]

I hope it's a hoax. My major concern on it not being a hoax is that from Dexterbase's post it sounds like they got a line of bearing on the VHF signal, so someone must've been out there barring weird atmospherics.

I don't think there is any way someone would be 65 miles out on a boat that small at that time of day on a Sunday unless they were attempting a transit, perhaps N to S? So we may not hear of an overdue crew for a few days.

Having a 5 and 6 year old this one gives me a lump in the throat. I really wish they had handheld GPS and/or handheld floating VHF (preferably with GPS), and/or liferaft/dinghy and/or epirb. Any one of these and we might have had a rescue.

Frank

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Khagan1227

I agree with Boatsman on the capibility of smaller boats, but to be off shore 65 miles, no dinghy, no liferaft and appearantly no epirb = INSANE.

30 years ago, we used to do the same thing all the time on our O'Day 20 without any consideration of the possible danger, we were young.

The coast guard did come out to check on us once in the fog 35 miles off Newport Beach, CA after a similar broken up VHF transmission in 1982. The CG got a fix on us based on the radio signal, we weren't in trouble, but a very real situation.