Missing boat in North Carolina found in the Azores.

[dannc]

From https://www.wral.com/boat-belonging-...ugal/20349648/

Amazing that the boat only took six months to go from the east coast of the US to the Azores AND that the boat was found at all. What are the odds....

A boat belonging to a man that's been missing for months has washed ashore in Portugal.

The Carolina Beach police department was contacted by authorities in São Jorge Island, Azores, Portugal after a 2006 Clearwater boat washed ashore.

The boat is believed to belong to Joseph Matthew Johnson, who was reported missing on Nov. 27, 2021, and has not been heard from since Nov. 22 when he left on his fishing boat. Johnson is 44 years old.

Portuguese authorities are helping Carolina Beach police in gathering evidence to find Johnson. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons database was key in helping Portuguese authorities contact Carolina Beach officials.

My assumption when the man went missing last year was that he fell or was knocked out of the boat. Though I suppose a wave could have capsized the boat.

Later,
Dan

[StuM]

Originally Posted by dannc

Amazing that the boat only took six months to go from the east coast of the US to the Azores

The time is not really surprising.
About 2500NM in 180 days is only 14NM per day or less that 0.6 knots and the boat would have been in the Gulf Stream/Azores Current almost all the way.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by StuM

The time is not really surprising.
About 2500NM in 180 days is only 14NM per day or less that 0.6 knots and the boat would have been in the Gulf Stream/Azores Current almost all the way.

The town he left is 30-40 miles from the Gulf Stream. At some point, the boats was in the stream, but it is surprising to me that he deliberately went that far off shore in that little boat. We are sailing west of his town and we don't see power boats his size even three miles off shore. They are hugging the coast to go fishing.

He appears to have left from Carolina Beach which is a small town just north of the Cape Fear river and Cape Fear. The Gulf Stream is 30-40 miles away. Frying Pan shoals off Cape Fear go out 30ish miles, and supposedly are good fishing areas, but the waters can be rough to say the least.

I have never heard if he said where he was going fishing so we might never know how his boat got into the stream.... On one of our sailing trips in the last year or so, there were multiple Pan Pans of a capsized power boat that was offshore. Never heard that it was found anywhere. Maybe it is still out there...

Decades ago. Maybe in the 60's or early 70's, a Catholic priest and another man, went off shore in a small boat in South Florida and were never seen again. The Bermuda Triangle got them don't you know. Course, they were very likely out in the Gulf Stream when something happened. I wonder where the boat turned up? I figured it just kept riding the Gulf Stream...

Later,
Dan

[Orion Jim]

It’s pure speculation how far he was offshore when he met his end. Currents, prevailing SW winds, and eventually the Gulf Strean certainly played a role. He COULD have been twenty feet off a beach when his luck ran out and nature took the helm.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by dannc

He appears to have left from Carolina Beach which is a small town just north of the Cape Fear river and Cape Fear. The Gulf Stream is 30-40 miles away. Frying Pan shoals off Cape Fear go out 30ish miles, and supposedly are good fishing areas, but the waters can be rough to say the least.

Plenty of current to carry someone into the Gulf Stream from close inshore.
This is what Windy shows right now.

[RaymondR]

There was a sailing yacht which was reported stolen in Western Australia and was found about a year later afloat off the coast of South Africa some years ago. Believed to have dragged anchor into deep water and drifted clear around the Indian Ocean to get there.

[svfinlandia]

Originally Posted by RaymondR

There was a sailing yacht which was reported stolen in Western Australia and was found about a year later afloat off the coast of South Africa some years ago. Believed to have dragged anchor into deep water and drifted clear around the Indian Ocean to get there.

There was a story about 10 years ago of a novice Sailor who bought a 33 foot Nauticat motorsailer and was off the coast of California 30 to 50 miles. His main sail blew out and his engine wouldn’t start so he called a mayday, even though he had a perfectly good jib and mizzen to sail with.
The Coast Guard lifted him off the boat and a year or so later the boat was found somewhere off the coast of Asia stripped of everything valuable, but in otherwise good condition.

Al, S/V Finlandia

[dannc]

Originally Posted by StuM

Plenty of current to carry someone into the Gulf Stream from close inshore.
This is what Windy shows right now.

The times I have been on Cape Fear, you could see two currents, one moving sorta SSW along the east side Bald Head Island, which then collided at Cape Fear with a current running east along the south side of the island. You can see the shoals and it is some wicked water even with little wind. Cape Fear shrinks and expands as the sand moves around. A part of an old wooden sailing ship was found exposed early this year or late last year.

The wind is often along the coast which could have also move the boat offshore if the wind was in the right direction. Well, the wind is often along the coast, spring, summer and fall. We have not been down there sailing in the winter, though we have tried.

I was searching for something completely unrelated to this incident and found this article, https://www.militarytimes.com/news/y...und-in-azores/.

The retired U.S. Army Special Forces soldier served for 24 years with tours in Afghanistan and South America, so Anderson believes he has skills to survive in dangerous conditions and elements.

Johnson was last seen leaving Federal Point Yacht Club marina on Nov. 22 on his boat, police said.

The 44-year-old Carolina Beach resident was reported missing five days later by a friend who arrived in town for a previously arranged fishing trip, police said.

Video surveillance from Nov. 22 shows the boat leaving the marina where he lived and the last ping from Johnson’s cellphone was from off the coast of Bald Head Island at 5:17 p.m. that same day, Sgt. Colby Edens said by telephone Monday.

I supposed they just had a single contact with the Bald Head Island cell tower and could not triangulate his location with other towers. There is a lot of water around Bald Head Island.

Later,
Dan