Coast Guard and Local Authorities Suspend Search for 46-year-old Sailor

      Tangier Island, Va. -- The Coast Guard and local authorities have suspended the search at 2:51 p.m. Friday for a 46-year-old man aboard a 30-foot sailboat who went missing approximately two miles south of Tangier Island, Va., Thursday.

     The boater contacted Coast Guard Sector Baltimore watchstanders at 3:54 a.m. Thursday and reported his boat had sustained damage, and he was requesting assistance.

     A crew aboard a 41-foot Utility Boat from Coast Guard Station Crisfield, Md., crews aboard two MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, N.J., crew aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Cochito, homeported in Little Creek, Va., a crew aboard a Virginia Marine Resources Commission boat, members of the Tangier Island Fire Department and a crew aboard a Maryland State Police helicopter responded to search for the man.

     The Coast Guard searched a total of 200 square miles in approximately 36 hours for the man.