by SAN DIEGO — A search is underway for three Americans who were set to sail for the United States from Mazatlán, Mexico, and they have not been seen or heard from in more than 10 days.
Kerry O’Brien, Frank O’Brien and William Gross reportedly departed on April 4 and intended to make a supply stop in Cabo San Lucas, approximately 200 nautical miles across the Sea of Cortez, on April 6. April before heading to San Diego, the US Coast Guard said.
“However, there was no record of its arrival in Cabo San Lucas nor a report of its location,” the Coast Guard said in a statement Friday.
Gross’s daughter, Melissa Spicuzza, said the O’Briens invited her father to go sailing with them and he jumped at the opportunity because he loves being on the water, according to NBC San Diego. He said his father lives on a boat in San Diego Bay.
Each missing American, Spicuzza said, has decades of sailing experience, and the O’Briens hold Coast Guard captain’s licenses, required for voyages with paying passengers.
“I just want my dad, my dad and the O’Briens, to come back and say, ‘What’s going on guys?'” he told the station.
The Mexican Navy was leading the search for the three and the Coast Guard was assisting, the US military branch said.
Searchers have contacted marinas in Baja, Mexico, but no one has reported seeing the trio’s boat, a LaFitte Model 44 sailing yacht, the Coast Guard said.
Urgent maritime transmissions via VHF radio have so far yielded no reports from the sailors or the 44-foot ship, the Ocean Bound, he said.
The model was sold in the 1970s and 1980s by LaFitte Yachts Inc. of Newport Beach. The company said it was envisioned by noted yacht designer Robert Perry as “the ultimate cruising yacht hull”, according to marketing material at the time.
The National Weather Service reported that the sea along the Baja California coast on Saturday included waves of up to 10 feet.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the trio or the vessel is asked to contact the Coast Guard.
