The Coast Guard has decided to suspend its search for a missing sailor who mysteriously disappeared when he sailed from Kauai to Oahu earlier this month.
Ira Foreman, a sailor originally from Seattle, departed from Port Allen on Kauai Dec. 17. He was sailing a 36-foot sailboat named Arcturus and was supposed to reach Keehi Lagoon on Oahu the following day. His wife reported him overdue about a week later, late Saturday afternoon.
According to his wife, Foreman was originally sailing from American Samoa to Oahu, but happened to go off-course and ended up at Port Allen instead. He stayed aboard his sailboat at anchor for one day before departing for Oahu. That was the last anyone has seen or heard from him. It seems as though there have been a lot of missing persons reports from the ocean area around Hawaii lately.
The sailboat that Foreman was aboard is being described as having a white hull, white sails, no name on the transom, and four portholes on both sides of the cabin. Foreman reportedly had a cell phone, personal locator beacon, and VHF radio on board.
None of these apparently are helping the Coast Guard. They have searched and area of around 178,000 square miles continuously since Sunday, stretching about 600 miles west of Kauai, by Wednesday.
The search was finally called off Wednesday at 7:50 p.m., pending new information about Foreman’s whereabouts, according to Coast Guard spokeswoman Angela Henderson.
Anyone with information on Foreman’s whereabouts is urged to call Coast Guard Sector Honolulu at (808) 842-2600.
Not very often does this happen, especially with someone who has a personal locator on board their vessel.
Leave a Reply