New Zealand - 6 Americans, 1 Briton, ages 17-73, & ship Nina lost at sea, 4 June 2013

[wfgodot]

Text message renews hopes for Florida Keys family aboard a missing schooner. (Miami Herald)

Hopes of finding a Florida Keys family aboard a missing schooner near New Zealand were renewed Wednesday after rescue teams acknowledged they have a text message sent by a crew member just before the boat vanished.

The text is the only clue as to the fate of the Nina, carrying a family from Tavernier and four others.

"Thanks. Storm sails shredded last night, now bare poles. Going 4kt 310DEG Will update course info @6pm," the text says.

The message was sent from a satellite phone at 11.50 p.m. June 3 on the schooner carrying seven people. The status: undelivered. The receiver: unknown.

Because of privacy laws, it took weeks for the U.S. government to authorize the satellite phone carrier, Iridium, to release the message.
---

more at the link

Not sure if headline matches the import.

 

[sherlockh]

Missing yacht still afloat, says father

Father bases his hopes on the speed mentioned in the last text message. Boat should be nearing the Australian coast he says. But with no sign of them and no further phone activity? I don't know if this is realistic. I hope so.

 

[mikkismom]

Lost text from missing yacht Nina crew

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8876799/Lost-text-from-missing-yacht-Nina-crew

 

[lucky181]

Seach called off for Nina

Extensive searching over the past 11 days of an area more than eight times the size of New Zealand has failed to find any trace of the schooner.

No more searching is planned unless new information comes to light, Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand operations manager John Seward said on Friday.

http://news.msn.co.nz/nationalnews/8685127/text-message-brings-hope-for-nina-families

Article and pictures of Kyle Jackson, American visiting NZ who is on the boat.

When he traveled to New Zealand in late March, he grew close to his friend's 73-year-old aunt. Evi Nemeth took the Nebraskan sailing. And at some point this spring, they heard about the 70-foot schooner and its trip to Australia.

They joined the crew. “They must have gotten along really well and liked Kyle and decided to take them both on -- even though Kyle had never been on open water,” Megan Jackson said.

While waiting for the trip, Kyle Jackson's grandfather died in Bassett. He didn't return to Nebraska for the funeral, but he was going to help grant one of his grandfather's wishes.

“Pappy always wanted to go to Australia,” Megan Jackson said. “So we shipped some of Pappy's ashes to Kyle.”

http://journalstar.com/news/local/l...cle_03d03a8f-31e8-55a9-aecf-13e04c21c91f.html

 

[mikkismom]

Search For Missing Former CU Professor Suspended Off New Zealand Coast

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/07/...cu-professor-suspended-off-new-zealand-coast/

 

[mikkismom]

Father needs help searching for missing crew at sea

http://www.klfy.com/story/22825235/father-needs-help-searching-for-missing-crew-at-sea

 

[lucky181]

Missing schooner crew recognized at St. Andrews Marina candlelight vigil

http://www.newsherald.com/news/miss...-st-andrews-marina-candlelight-vigil-1.171185

 

[lucky181]

Families are raising money with Texas EquuSearch to help pay for NZ to continue the air search.
http://texasequusearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Nina_TES_web_Baird.pdf

 

[mikkismom]

Search efforts continue for missing Danielle Wright

http://www.klfy.com/story/22865615/search-efforts-continue-for-missing-danielle-wright

 

[mikkismom]

South Pacific search fails to locate missing schooner, crew

http://theadvocate.com/home/6544626-125/south-pacific-search-fails-to

 

[mikkismom]

Showing support for missing passengers

http://www.katc.com/news/showing-support-for-missing-passengers/

 

[mikkismom]

New search for missing Nina crew

http://www.3news.co.nz/New-search-for-missing-Nina-crew/tabid/423/articleID/305523/Default.aspx

 

[SunVenus]

New search for missing Nina crew

http://www.3news.co.nz/New-search-for-missing-Nina-crew/tabid/423/articleID/305523/Default.aspx

This search is going on right in my area; if I hear anything I'll let you know. Nothing new at this time locally other than what has been posted thus far. Still praying for a good resolution to this disappearance.

 

[SunVenus]

Just a quick update: the weather has taken a nasty turn. Coastal wind warnings, marine warnings & cold temps & rain in this area. Hopefully this won't hamper the search efforts too much, the storms are moving west to east (from inland towards sea rather than the other way around) so perhaps the Tasman and areas out towards Lord Howe Island won't be affected as much. I'm right on the coast and can report there is no wind thus far, just some rain that began early this morning, and it isn't terribly cold, maybe 16 degrees Celcius. Forecast says it should be clearing late tonight & tomorrow, fingers crossed that our sailors are found safe & soon!

 

[Tyra1003]

http://www.katc.com/news/bad-weather-prevents-nina-life-raft-search/


Hopefully some good will come out of this!

 

[radiator]

http://www.katc.com/news/bad-weather-prevents-nina-life-raft-search/

Hopefully some good will come out of this!

from that link: "During a press conference Thursday, family explained to the pubic how to use Tomnod.com, a satellite company that uploads images of the Tasman Sea. The Tomnod system gets people to identify unusual objects they see in high-resolution satellite photos. That's where the satellite image of a bright orange object was spotted, and family says, the Nina carried a bright orange life-raft. "

Very cool! I wonder if it was somebody from the public that noticed the "orange object." I do hope it is them!

 

[SeaEclipse]

From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/9058940/Is-this-the-Nina-life-raft

"LATEST: New Zealand search and rescue authorities have rejected requests to resume an official search for the missing American yacht Nina in the Tasman Sea.

A privately funded New Zealand plane is searching the sea near Norfolk Island and in the Tasman Sea after dozens of people studying satellite images reported seeing what they believe is a liferaft possibly from the missing American yacht Nina."

I'm glad a private plane is out there looking, but I wonder why the NZ authorities are refusing to officially resume searching -- at least until this orange object is ruled out?

 

[SeaEclipse]

Oh, replying to my own post, in that article NZ indicates that they don't think the orange object is significant. I wonder what they think it is?

 

[mikkismom]

Texas EquuSearch to Hold Conference on "Nina 7" Missing Crew

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1422282#ixzz2cVhSg0Sv

 

[Tyra1003]

"The images have changed the search area. It's now 300 miles northeast from the original search area. An area nearly the size of Texas. At this rate it will take nearly 50 days to search."

http://www.katc.com/news/new-hope-7-crew-members-75-days-lost-at-sea/#_