MISSING S.Y. ORA DEL IN THE PACIFIC

[sinbad7]

I am afraid we have another yacht missing in the Pacific since 27 April this year.

This is the s.y. Ora Del from Sweden with my friend Rolf and his Chinese wife Jin as the only two crew members.

Their boat was in winter storage in La Paz,Mexico in the Golfo de California from where they headed into the Pacific bound for Australia in early April this year and was last heard from by Winlink satellite email 27 April.

They have communication equipment to connect with the satellite based Winlink email service and this is the last communications I received from them:

SA7CCY@winlink.org Apr 27

Hi Tore,

Briefly. 9N 122W approximately. at 1730, heading 220. (20130426)

We will hopefully be at about 7 30N 123 W tomorrow evening and the next morning about 6 N on the same line. We have wind from the North and we probably will until the ITCZ and takes us to the South side soon. We have had a couple of wonderful weeks with less than 10 kn (wind) most sun and just a real tropical scrub. Everything was wet.

We have to, and have become good at fishing and got a blue tuna today.
Dinner tomorrow .. it was the third fish, the first was at 2.5kg and lasted for three days.

Good that you keep track of us, thank you.

Good health

Jin & Rolf

--
They also have a Globalstar SPOT Messenger unit on board with a self made solar panel so they should not be out of battery power.

I was contacted by a good friend of Rolf´s in China by the name of Yan.

Hi Tore,
Yes his daughter in US hasn't heard anything from them for long time too, I am the contact person for them in China, I am supposed to get their email regularly.

Do you have the way to report their missing to the Coast Guard SAR authorities? you may leave my email and my cell phone to them too. (011-86-13811968426).

Thanks a lot! Please spread this to other sailors, maybe someone have some info about them

See the attached for the latest report from them.

I also found this blog from before they started their journey but it has lots of photos of the boat.

OraDel - Stern view - Your gallery name here


Tore
YACHTMARINE
Costa Verde - Brazil

[zeehag]

a friend who made this trip a couple of years ago told me there is a gap in coverage in pacific/south pacific for spot -- they may not yet realize this.

is one month overdue??
when did they leave mexico and from where di dthey leave mexico to jump to so pac, please.
were they part of pacific puddle jump rally??

[sinbad7]

zeehag.

All the information I know is in my previous posting.
I know SPOT has gaps,but they also have SSB on board and as you see,communication by email via Winlink.

No,they were not involved in any rally.

As you see from the attachment their SPOT reports stopped suddenly on the 24 April. His communication contact in China have also not heard from him since then and his family and daugher are worried about them.

Please try to restrict this thread to INFORMATION, not discussions and questions.

Thanks for your participation and help.

Tore

N.B. Rolf is a friend of mine from Sweden.

[zeehag]

i was asking about the specific port in mexico they left from and route so folks i know here inmexico an d under sail in pacific ocean might be able to assist you. without exact port of departure it is difficult to assist in finding boats that left from a more than 2000 mile long coastline. their exact float plan would also help as folks i know en route may have or not seen them in transit. is only a few thousand miles of variance to seek souls in tiny boats.

your pix were too small to see even enlarged.

all cruisers here are in a network, and little details can mean many hours of searching saved. and possibly lives.

they will probably check in with a really good story to tell you.

[sinbad7]

zeehag..

If you read through my first posting you will see she left from La Paz with a direct track for her last reported position 9N 122W approximately. That´s all!!

Tore

[MarkJ]

headed into the Pacific bound for Australia

If their destniation was Australia then they would not be over due. Just without contact.

As Zeehag so rightly suggests SPOT will NOT WORK in the Pacific. And their position puts them a long way off any HF station too.

HF is fine around the coast of the USA but when you are in the Pacific you are on your own.



Mark

[David_Old_Jersey]

Maybe someone could plot out their likely route (with approx dates / time - I appreciate that given the distance and weather variables that will become ever more a WAG) and having more than "Australia" as a destination might help a bit..........but nonetheless I am sure folks here better placed than me to guesstimate likely interim destinations (given their starting point and departure date - "early April").

I suggest it because until they are well overdue reaching an obvious (or known intended) landmass or 2 for a stop off, then I would suggest that they are simply out of contact rather than missing. Of course they could be bobbing around the Ocean, but likely need some more info before anyone will launch a full scale SAR - and even then only so much that could be done without an exact position (and that alone won't guarantee a happy outcome given the distances involved).

Would be interested to hear what their float / passage plan was for the trip, especially the bit about what they expect from the shore in the event of loss of communications and / or being overdue. If they didn't address this directly (or at all?) then I would respectfully suggest they didn't intend for those onshore to worry or launch an SAR unless something definitive is known (I make no judgement on the rights or wrongs of that approach). And IMO without advice to the contrary, a simple loss of communication is not a SAR trigger - accepting that by the time someone was well overdue (anywhere) that likely well past the point of rescue, but that likely the situation anyway....and the risks that are taken and accepted when crossing an ocean.

The above not intended to be debating point - more a long winded way of saying IMO too early to really worry.

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

HF is fine around the coast of the USA but when you are in the Pacific you are on your own.

Sorry, but that's just wrong. HF SSB works fine in the Pacific. I've used it with great success throughout the north and south Pacific, using Winlink and SailMail email, and with voice contacts.

[TacomaSailor]

"HF is fine around the coast of the USA but when you are in the Pacific you are on your own."

I'm not sure what the statement above is supposed to mean?

While in Western Mexico, Southern California, Puget sound - My HF radio (HAM and SSB) will connect with boats and land based stations in Australia, New Zealand, new Brunswick, Africa, Europe so I am pretty sure HF radio can make contact anywhere in the Pacific.

I once had a three way conversation from an anchorage near La Paz with New Zealand and New Brunswick using only 50 watts of power.

From Mexico and SoCal - I've talked with many friends making the transit to Hawaii, Polynesia, and Oz.

[sinbad7]

It´s funny how wives and relatives are always told "Do´nt worry,they´ll turn up somewhere,sometime!" when they have stopped receiving regular messages from their dear ones for 36 days. How would YOU react if it was YOUR wife/husband?
The SPOT,yes does have it´s blind spots,especially in the Pacific,but a SSB radio will reach even to Norway,and that was how Rolf sent his regular Winlink email messages.
If we consider mechanical failure and they´re drifting around somewhere,how long would you ask the wife to wait before she hits the SAR button?

Thanks for all the suggestions and your help but unless you have relevant news of the boat´s whereabouts,I can not make any further comments.

Tore

[donradcliffe]

Since they have ham license and SSB, I'd get in touch with the Pacific Seafarer's net to see if they ever checked in and if anyone there knows anything.

[zeehag]

i sent info you posted to a ssb.ham sailor friend in pacific, currently hawaii, and to the folks i know in baja at la paz...

sinbad--if it were my family or good friends, i would do what you are doing, and hoping folks were doing what i am ... and i would get my broom out and fly over the area a few times....

[sinbad7]

Thanks zeehag .. you´re a pal...

Tore

[zeehag]

sinbad--we all gotta stick together out here--is a large ocean and a wee tiny boat...stuff can happen....i hope they are ok and i do hope they check in in a few days

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by zeehag

a friend who made this trip a couple of years ago told me there is a gap in coverage in pacific/south pacific for spot -- they may not yet realize this.

is one month overdue??
when did they leave mexico and from where di dthey leave mexico to jump to so pac, please.
were they part of pacific puddle jump rally??

A 'gap'? A 'gap'?

IMHO there is a:

http://www.findmespot.com/en/images/...p_nolegend.jpg

Spot mostly useless, same as in South & Mid Atlantic and Indian.

Say 1600 miles to go and 30 days - they should be somewhere by now even under jury rig.

If they contact Winlink via sat, can someone contact them via sat? I assume the have a sat phone, right?

Cheers,
b.