HELP- Friend's dad lost contact in Pacific

Jun 2, 2017
2
Lost at sea Lost at sea Lost at sea
Dear sailing community,
Trying to source help as my friend's father, Richard Carr, is lost at sea, single-handing from Mexico to French Polynesia, since Sunday night May 28th at 9:30 pm PST. We have the US coast guard helping us and they are enlisting boats to search but I am trying to get the message as wide spread as possible in hopes of finding others in this sparsely-populated area.

His last known co-ordinates were
Lat 6.538678
Lon -127.349439

His in-reach communication had him at WSW traveling at 1.24 knots.
Winds were light so don't know if his weathervane was continuing to steer or whether he was drifting.
Recent attempts to ping his in-reach showed it is either off, or ran out of batteries (or worse).
He is not responding to their attempt to hail him on his SSB.
wdj4510 Freq: channel 8.291.0

He is in a 36 foot Union Sailboat (Celebration). Single-handing. Last communications seem to indicate extreme disorientation (probably extreme sleep deprivation) and letting us know he was saying goodbye. Coast guard said no other boats in the area where he was.

COAST GUARD INFO:
JRCC HONOLULU REQUESTS INFORMATION ON THE LOCATION OR STATUS OF SAILING VESSEL CELEBRATION CALLSIGN WDJ4510.
VESSEL DEPARTED PUERTO VALLARTA ON 02 MAY, DESTINATION HIVA OA, MARQUESAS ISLANDS WITH ESTIMATED DATE OF ARRIVAL 26 JUNE.
LAST REPORT VIA DELORME TRACKER WAS ON 28 MAY 2017 WITH POSITION 06 53N 127 35W COURSE 247T AT 0.7 TO 1.1 KNOTS.
VESSEL WITH 1 POB, 71 YEARS OLD CAUCASIAN MALE, NAME RICHARD CARR, IS BELIEVED TO BE IN DISTRESS.
SV CELEBRATION IS A 36 FOOT UNION CUTTER, WHITE HULL, WHITE SALES, GREEN DODGER AND TEAK TRIM.
VESSEL IS EQUIPPED WITH MARINE VHF AND SSB, AND IS POSSIBLY MONITORING DISTRESS AND CALLING FREQUENCY 8291 KILOHERTZ.
ANY VESSELS WITH INFORMATION ARE REQUESTED TO CONTACT USCG JRCC HONOLULU ON 808-535 3333 OR EMAIL JRCCHONOLULU@USCG.MIL
 
Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
Ladies and gents... the widest dissemination possible please.
 

KD3PC

.
Sep 25, 2008
1,069
boatless rainbow Callao, VA
YOU might contact a ham radio operator in your area, to see if they can check in to the marine "net", it used to be held daily on the high side of 20 meters (14.313 or there abouts). They have a wide audience and may provide help in your query.
 

SFS

.
Aug 18, 2015
2,066
Currently Boatless Okinawa
To the OP: I hope you have put similar posts on other forums: Cruisers Forum, Cruising Anarchy, Sailnet, Sailing Anarchy, possibly Noonsite, etc. Good luck.
 
Last edited:
Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
I posted this on a HAM Radio fourm at QRZ.com. This is why I asked the community here for widest dissemination.
 
Jun 2, 2017
2
Lost at sea Lost at sea Lost at sea
Thank you all so much for continuing to spread the word. The latest from his wife:

"Update on Richard: There is no news yet about Richard or his vessel but wanted to thank everyone for the overwhelming support and love that has been shown our family. Our various family posts have been shared over 1400 times, and we have been able to spread the word to many sailing networks internationally who all have his information and have spread the word to be on the look-out. The Coast Guard has been fantastic and continues to be beyond amazing. Their expert team has spoken to the DOD, Navy, Search and Rescue in Samoa, French Polynesia, Mexico, even China and Japan who have cargo ships in the area or commercial fishing vessels. Several of these ships have voluntarily diverted to help search for him. This has gone all the way up to the District Commander who is a 2-star Admiral. They have sophisticated software to continue to analyze all drift patterns starting from RIchard's last known location, weather, current, wave action, course direction, as well as alternate scenarios such as where he might be if he were under sail. New ships are brought in every day to new potential areas as conditions change. All agencies, embassies etc have been informed. The Coast Guard team calls us daily with updates and keeps us hopeful with stories of those who fell off the grid but turned up weeks later. People who knew him in various ports have obviously seen the information as they have written to share their support. The main goal is to get information to mariners in the most remote part of the Pacific Ocean who might cross his path. The Coast Guard is excellent at doing that and continue to think of new tactics every day. We are in deep gratitude for all your support and love and the actions you have taken to help find Richard."
 
Feb 17, 2006
5,274
Lancer 27PS MCB Camp Pendleton KF6BL
We here at SBO are hoping for the best for Richard and his family. Hopefully it is nothing but technical issues with his communications equipment. Our thoughts are with you. As mariners ourselves, we hope that if we become "missing", everyone will do their hardest to try and find us.
 
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