California Sailboat Sinking; 2 Children, 2 Adults Abandoned Sinking Ship Off San Francisco Coast

On Monday the Coast Guard searched for four family members, two adults and two children, who went missing in a California sailboat that started sinking on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 24.

Off the coast of San Francisco, California the family’s 29-foot sailboat began taking on water and sinking on Sunday afternoon.

The vessel was named the Charm Blow, and was approximately 65 miles off the coast of Pillar Point at 4:20 in the afternoon. At that time, someone on board made a distress call to the Coast Guard with news that the boat was taking on water and experiencing electronic failure, according to the Coast Guard.

The boat did not have a working GPS system.

An hour later, the boat operator said that the occupants were abandoning the ship, and the Coast Guard lost contact with the family.

Lt. Heather Lampert, Coast Guard spokeswoman, said that the family didn’t have life rafts, so they were trying to make one out of a cooler and life preserver ring.

Lampert said the search focus was 60 miles off Monterey Bay, which is about 100 miles south of San Francisco.

The family is as of yet unidentified, as the Coast Guard has received no missing persons’ reports.

However, the Coast Guard was able to discern that the four missing people are husband and wife, their 4-year-old son, and the son’s cousin, who is younger than 8 years old from radio communications.

The National Weather Service had issued an advisory throughout the weekend warning boaters of strong winds and rough seas around the San Francisco Bay region. The advisory told mariners “operating smaller vessels [to] avoid navigating in these conditions.”

Several aircraft and vessels have joined the search.

Lampert said Coast Guard Crews searched throughout the night. A California Air National Guard helicopter has begun assisting with the effort, according to The Associated Press.

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