Family Missing at Sea off Coast of California: Sinking Ship Leaves Four Stranded as Search Comes to Halt

It has recently been reported by CNN News that the U.S. Coast Guard was searching the rough waters off Northern California on Monday for a family lost at sea. Assumably two adults and two young children, under the age of 8, are allegedly missing after they radioed in to the Coast Guard, first on Sunday night, that they were abandoning a sinking sailboat.

The latest update on the search for the "shipwrecked family," reveals KTVU reports, is that the search has been called off, as of Tuesday, after a 20,000 square mile search failed to turn up any trace of wreckage or the family, authorities said. An extensive search from both the air and sea covering an area about the size of West Virginia had failed to locate turn up any clues as to the fate of the family. 

The family of four, still yet to be identified, had been out sailing a small boat on Sunday on the west side of Monterray Bay, although the specific location of the family or boat was not known. Forecasters had issued a weekend advisory warning to boaters of rough seas in the area, and water temperatures typically are in the 40s and 50s, making long-term survival difficult, according to the Associated Press.

The group made its first distress call late Sunday afternoon, said Coast Guard  Lt. Heather Lampert. Investigators used the boat's radio signal and radar to determine the call came from an area about 60 miles west of Monterey. The caller claimed that the 29-foot craft was taking on water and sinking in the frigid waters south of San Francisco, roughly 105 km west of Half Moon Bay, the Coast Guard said. The last call they recieved before losing communication was that the "Charmblow" was "abandoning ship".

The man from the missing vessel, possibly named the Charmblow, had indicated the group planned to use a "makeshift life raft fashioned out of a cooler and a life preserver as a flotation device" until they could be rescued , Lutz said, although much of the call was "inaudible" causing uncertainty about the actual name of the vessel.

Lutz said four helicopters and three boats would continue to search the ocean from Half Moon Bay to Monterey through the night and re-evaluate the effort Tuesday morning, resulting in a called off search as of today.

Authorities are seeking any help they can get, including the public assistace to identify a family missing at sea, according to a Feb. 26 NBC affiliate KCR TV report .The Guard released one of the family's recorded distress calls, in hopes that it would lead to new information from the public that could help in the search. So far the agency has received no reports of missing persons in the case.

"Unfortunately, there has been nothing that has come in," Officer Barry Bena said. "No tips from someone saying their family is missing or from someone who recognized the voice. " 

Stay posted for updates on the mysterious "shipwrecked family".