Search Continues for 14 Missing in Gulf

A search in Mexico’s Gulf of California was to continue today for 14 missing people, including 11 U.S. citizens, who were aboard a chartered boat that sank early New Year’s Day while on a scuba-diving excursion.

Two survivors--an American diver and a Mexican crewman--were pulled to safety Tuesday afternoon after floating for more than a day in the chilly waters separating the Mexican mainland and the Baja California peninsula.

Among the missing, a family member and neighbors confirmed Wednesday night, were Joseph T. Ream, 63, and Janet Ream, 56, of Del Mar, a semi-retired couple whose enthusiasm for diving had led them to take scuba trips in recent years to the Red Sea, New Zealand, Australia and Mexico.

Jay Broad, a nephew of Janet Ream, said Wednesday that his family had been contacted by the Coast Guard and U.S. consular officials in Mexico. “We’re just hoping that something breaks,” said Broad, whose mother is a sister of Janet Ream.

The American survivor, tentatively identified as Ophram Watson, 62, of Tucson, said the boat capsized after a large wave swamped it between 3 and 3:30 a.m. Monday as the craft was riding in rough seas about 25 miles west of the Mexican port of Guaymas, according to David Stone, a U.S. consular official in Hermosillo who interviewed Watson.

According to a consulate report provided to Ream’s relatives, Watson told authorities that as many as 10 people may have survived in a lifeboat.

The 70-foot vessel, the Santa Barbara, went down about five minutes after the wave hit, according to Watson’s account.

U.S. and Mexican officials said that apparently no one had a chance to use the three life craft aboard the boat.

The missing also included eight Arizona residents, one other Californian and three Mexican crewmen, according to a spokesman for Silent Experience Scubacenter, the Tucson company that helped arrange the charter.

The spokesman said that along with Watson and the Reams, the Americans who signed up for the excursion were Matt Canestra, Paige Houlsby, Tom Malloy, Norm Malloy, Jerry Lyons, Verne Spidle, Carol Ubelacher, Gregg Todd and Jim Dion.

Their home towns were not immediately known.

As of late Wednesday, no bodies had been found, searchers said. Only limited debris had been discovered.

Watson was plucked from the water by a private search vessel about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, after he had spent about 38 hours floating on a wooden piece of a door, authorities said. He told investigators he owed his survival largely to a remarkable coincidence: A bag containing his wet suit fell into his hands as the big wave rocked the vessel, enabling him to put on the insulating outfit quickly. Most passengers apparently were in their bunks when the wave struck, authorities said.

According to Watson’s account, several other initial survivors, without wet suits, clung to the floating wood for some hours, but they drifted off as the cold began to affect them.

Watson, who returned to Arizona on Wednesday, and the other survivor, Vincente Gonzalez Mancilla, 30, a Mexican crewman, were reported in good condition. Gonzalez was picked up at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday by a ferry. Rescuers told port officials that he was clinging to a life preserver, but did not have a wet suit. The temperature of the Gulf waters at the time was estimated at 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

The search for survivors began Tuesday. At the time the Santa Barbara sunk, Mexican officials said, it was returning to the Mexican port of San Carlos, near Guaymas, after spending time on a scuba-diving excursion near Tortuga Island. The vessel apparently had no firm return date, only sometime on Monday or Tuesday. One U.S. official said that may have slowed rescue efforts, as the boat was not considered missing until Tuesday. The excursion began on Dec. 28.

A U.S. Coast Guard Falcon H-25 rescue jet and fixed-wing C-130 search aircraft were expected to continue searching for survivors for the third consecutive day today. Mexican search vessels and two aircraft were also to continue the search in a 100-square-mile zone of the gulf.