After receiving two mayday calls November 27 from Hawaiian sailor Ron Ingraham, 67, US Coast Guard aircraft flew 59 search sorties, scouring roughly 12,000 square miles of ocean, but no sign of the solo sailor’s 25-ft sloop Malia was ever found, and he was not heard from again — until yesterday, 12 days after the initial call for help. 

At 7:55 yesterday morning, Coast Guard personnel in Honolulu picked up a brief mayday from Ingraham on VHF 16. His position was then approximately 64 miles south of Honolulu. The 505-ft US Navy destroyer Paul Hamilton, which was 14 miles away, was dispatched to assist in addition to Coast Guard aircraft and the Hilo-based CG cutter Kiska, which successfully towed Malia to Kaunakakai, Molokai. At the time of the initial Thanksgiving Day mayday, Ingraham reported that his boat was taking on water and in danger of sinking. Details on the nature of his problems and any repairs he might have made have not yet been released. Evidently Malia did not have an EPIRB or similar tracking device on board.

In recent days Ingraham’s friends have been planning an event in his honor. But now, instead of a memorial to his loss, it will be a celebration of his rescue! A Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Scott Carr made the point that it is extremely rare for a sailor in peril to be found after a search has been abandoned — in this case, on December 1.

In other South Pacific sailing news, West Coast sailor Rimas Meleshyus finally made it to safe refuge yesterday, arriving under tow at Pago Pago, American Samoa, 122 days after leaving San Francisco Bay aboard his San Juan 24 Pier Pressure. His was not a mayday situation, but he was unable to make landfall in his engineless boat without assistance. Although the sailing skills of this Russian-born American are extremely limited, and his tiny trailer-sailer was never meant for offshore sailing, he is absolutely determined to sail or drift around the world aboard Pier Pressure — at least he was prior to making this epic four-month, 4,000-mile crossing.