The US Coast Guard called off the search Tuesday afternoon of the missing capsized sailboat off the coast of Monterey Bay, citing the incident as a hoax.

"We weren't able to find any vessel, any signs of debris, we couldn't find anything that would indicate there had been an incident," said Thomas McKenzie, a Coast spokesman out of the Yerba Buena command in San Francisco.

Searchers have been scouring 20,000 square mile of ocean since Sunday. Till now no one has come forward to report a missing family or friends.

Coast Guard investigators will look into the incident and "prosecute it and investigate it to the best of their ability," Cmdr. Don Montoro said. "We're not investigating it directly as a hoax, but we are pursuing every avenue. It's certainly a possibility."

"I know we do have successful prosecutions" on such hoaxes, Montoro said, "and it would be taken very seriously."

The Coast Guard received a distress call Sunday at 4:20 p.m. local time as a man reporting that he, his wife, their 4-year-old son and his cousin were on a 29-foot sailboat taking on water and experiencing problems with its electronics.

The audio of the distress call was released in hope to identify the voice.

"Coast Guard, Coast Guard, we are abandoning ship. This is the (Charmblow), we are abandoning ship," the ship's operator said in the faint audio.

"If anyone knows someone who owns a vessel with a similar sounding name, please let us know that," Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Mike Lutz told NBC Bay Area.