Lone Kayaker Missing on Journey to Hawaii; Wife Blames Poor Wind

A lack of wind may have delayed the arrival of a San Diego man feared lost during an attempt to set a record by kayaking alone from the West Coast to Hawaii, his wife said Wednesday.

Ed Gillet, 36, an experienced kayaker, departed from Monterey Bay on June 25 in his 21-foot kayak for an expected seven-week trip to Hawaii, according to his wife, Katie Kampe. If successful, Gillet, who with his wife owns a boat store in Point Loma, would be the first person to complete a solo kayak trip on this route.

Gillet was scheduled to arrive in the islands 12 days ago, on Aug. 15. But Wednesday, his wife said that after discussions with the Coast Guard about wind conditions in the Pacific, she has revised his arrival date to early September.

“Aug. 15 was a good day to expect him if the regular trade winds were pushing him,” Kampe said. “However, a friend of ours in Seattle has been looking at satellite pictures, and it’s been very flat, very calm. So the revised arrival date is Sept. 6.”

“Depending on the winds, that trip could take 40 days or it could take 80 days,” she said.

No Search Planned Yet

Though a full-scale search will not be launched by the Coast Guard until at least Aug. 31, the Coast Guard might broadcast on certain radio frequencies in an attempt to let Gillet know that his family and friends are worried about him, according to Chief Petty Officer Charlie Crosby, spokesman for the Coast Guard in Long Beach.

“Ed always listens to this one program on NPR (National Public Radio), so they’re going to see if they can broadcast on that,” Kampe said. “They might also try the American Armed Forces Radio and the weather satellite station.”

Crosby said that even though Gillet is not considered officially overdue, the Coast Guard has been broadcasting to all mariners in the area where Gillet is assumed to be to report to the Coast Guard if they have seen him since July 17. The same request has been broadcast to aviators since July 22.

“We have no indication that he is in distress,” Crosby said. “He’s not overdue, and we have no idea of an approximate area as to where to look. If he’s off course, he could be in an area approximately one-and-a-half times the size of the continental United States, and that’s the minimum area. It is virtually impossible to find a kayak in that area.”

Kampe said her father-in-law, Ed Gillet Sr., of Pensacola, Fla., told her he has written the commandant of the Coast Guard in Washington and to President Reagan requesting help, but Crosby said he has not received any requests or information from Washington regarding Gillet.

Signal Quit July 7

Along with a two-month food supply and two-way radio and receiver, Gillet had an electronic beacon designed to send a signal by satellite to Scripps Institution of Oceanography three times a day.

Those signals stopped July 7, the same day Gillet was seen by a Navy ship about 450 miles west of San Diego, Crosby said.

Though her husband has not been seen or heard from in more than six weeks, Kampe remains optimistic that it is a lack of wind, and nothing else, that is to blame for her husband’s delay.

“I was very supportive of the trip, and still am,” Kampe said. “A lot of people ask me how I put up with it (his traveling). It’s never a question of putting up with it. That’s who I married and why I married him.”