Text Fwd: [famoksaiyanfriends] Canoe Missing on Return Trip to Yap

Guam Pacific Daily News
Canoe Missing on Return Trip to Yap

By Gaynor Dumat-ol Daleno
• Pacific Daily News gdumat-ol@guampdn.com
• May 21, 2010


The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for an overdue 33-foot outrigger sailing canoe that left Guam May 13 for Yap with 11 people on board.

The search is taking place in a 60,000-square-mile area about 250 miles southwest of Guam, the Coast Guard said yesterday.

The canoe was about halfway between Guam and Yap when it was last seen, according to Lt. Elizabeth Buendia, with Coast Guard Guam Sector's public affairs office.

Two sailing canoes left Guam on May 13 on their return voyage to Yap. About 500 miles of ocean separate Guam and Yap.

The Mathow Maram arrived in Yap on Monday, but the second canoe, Simion Hokulea, remains overdue, according to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard's Guam Sector received an official request for assistance to search for the missing canoe around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. The overdue canoe was reported last seen Sunday.

Local small boats and a plane from Pacific Missionary Aviation have been searching since Tuesday.

An aircrew from the Coast Guard Air Station at Barbers Point, Hawaii, launched an HC-130 Hercules aircraft Tuesday to assist in the search.

The Coast Guard Cutter Washington also is assisting in the search.

When the two canoes arrived on Guam on April 30, they received help from Coast Guard and Guam Fire Department small boats to reach the Hagåtña shore.

The canoes at the time were having difficulties sailing and one had a broken mast, according to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard worked with the crews of both canoes to ensure they had proper lifesaving gear before they left Guam, according to the Coast Guard.

The Yapese canoes left Guam with one VHF radio, life jackets, flares, and radar reflectors which are small metallic devices on the top of the mast which are intended to receive and return radar signals, according to the Coast Guard.

The radar reflectors can be picked by some vessels' radar. Large ships within 50 and 75 miles may be able to pick up the such radar reflector on the ships' radars, Buendia said.
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UPDATE: (* from Martha Duenas)
Pacific Daily News
Missing Yap Canoe Safe in Palau
May 22, 2010