Sailboat Found Adrift; Skipper Is Missing
A man’s 27-foot sailboat was recently found floating unmanned in the ocean about 1,000 miles north of Hawaii, more than a month after he had planned to arrive in the islands, Coast Guard officials said Tuesday.
Robert L. Goodspeed, 55, left from Ventura Harbor June 20, expecting to arrive in Hilo on the island of Hawaii on July 10.
On Friday, a Greek freighter, the Chetumal, bound for South Carolina ran across the ship listing in the sea.
Goodspeed was not aboard, and the boat’s decks were partly flooded by a mixture of seawater and sewage. The freighter recovered the ship’s charts, equipment and the boat’s log, its last entry dated July 6 about 470 nautical miles east of the islands.
Goodspeed’s boat was outfitted with a satellite navigating system, and two emergency locater beacons. A life raft was still strapped to the sloop’s bow.
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