Three seasoned U.S. sailors last seen on a cruise off the Mexican coast have been missing for 11 days, the U.S. Coast Guard has said.
Kerry O’Brien, Frank O’Brien and William Gross left the Mazatlán resort on April 4 aboard the Ocean Certain, the 44-foot La Fitte, with plans to make yet another stop on the solution to San Diego.
Just two days later, the sailors would arrive in Cabo San Lucas, a town on the lower tip of the Baja California peninsula, 400 miles from Mazatlán.
“Nevertheless, there was no record of their arrival in Cabo San Lucas and no report of their location” said the army.
Their cell phones last rang off the coast of Mazatlán after they called Cabo San Lucas Marina, possibly attempting to book a docking spot, their family said in a joint statement.
These three are seasoned sailors with 90 years of open water experience. Kerry and Frank are U.S. Coast Guard Captains licensed.
“Ocean Certain is a solid older vessel and by many accounts is one in every of the finest sailboats ever built,” the families said.
![William Gross leading the boat.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009689728.jpg?w=1024)
“You possibly can argue that by today’s standards it lacks technology. There may be also an argument for those sailors who have read star charts and coastal navigation for many of their lives. Technology can fail just because of a single wire or a power outage. Their collective knowledge and experience is not going to disappoint.”
cdr. Greg Higgins, coordinator of search missions for the US Coast Guard, he told CNN that the weather wasn’t ideal when the group went missing.
“After they began their voyage, we all know that the conditions weren’t optimal for such a expedition, although sailing ships were definitely sailing there at the moment. Winds potentially in excess of 30 knots and seas of 15 to twenty or possibly more feet over the course of their journey,” Higgins said.
![Kerry O'Brien and Frank O'Brien](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009689722.jpg?w=802)
“It’s a long journey even in good conditions, from Mazatlán to Cabo. That is two days and positively to San Diego, which was their final destination. And it has improved barely since then.”
The Mexican Navy helps the Coast Guard seek for missing sailors, and the two have alerted other sailors to control Ocean Certain and its inhabitants.
![Ocean bound](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009689727.jpg?w=1002)
The agencies have expanded their search parameters to a “drift projection” in case the sailboat becomes stranded and swept away by the waves, and families are asking South American sailors to be vigilant.
The Coast Guard can also be tracking a “journey projection” that Ocean Certain might have followed if the sailors had simply lost radio contact and continued on to California.