Search suspended for missing sailor

St. Petersburg, FL (March 13, 2020) – The Coast Guard is suspending its search for a missing sailor who was participating in the 2020 Water Tribe Everglades Challenge.

Jim Slauson, 73, from St. Petersburg was reported to be diverting from the course with his last personal tracking device check-in was reported on March 9 at 7:24 am. A Coast Guard Air Station in Clearwater (FL) found Slauson’s blue, 17-foot monohull later that night with no one was on board.

“Suspending a search and rescue case is one of the toughest parts of the job,” said Capt. Matthew Thompson, commander of Sector St. Petersburg. “Our thoughts are with the family during this difficult time.”

The Coast Guard air and surface teams had searched more than 9,772 square nautical miles.

The 300nm Water Tribe Everglades Challenge had started March 7 from Tampa Bay, with the route going along the coast from St. Petersburg to Key Largo.

Slauson appeared to be making good progress, sailing south along the coast, according to a website that shows his GPS coordinates.

But by early on March 9, something was wrong. Slauson had veered off course, farther into the Gulf of Mexico before his GPS device stopped reporting his location. Slauson’s son called the U.S. Coast Guard and search crews found Slauson’s boat more than 50 miles off the coast of Marco Island.

What went wrong was still unclear today, but Slauson’s disappearance happened during an event so difficult that only about 40 percent of the field finishes each year, according to the WaterTribe website.

There are no safety boats or support crews to help during the race, and participants must carry their own food and water. Safety and communication equipment are required. That includes a GPS tracking device and an emergency position-indicating radio beacon, or EPIRB, that must be attached to each participant’s life jacket.

“If you are not an expert paddler and/or sailor, do not enter this race,” says a three-page warning and waiver that participants must sign. “Even if you are a well-prepared expert you may DIE – yes, you may DIE.”

An email sent to race organizers today was not immediately returned.

Slauson had a registered radio beacon with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and showed the beacon, attached to his life jacket with a lanyard, to a race safety inspector prior to the race start, said Petty Officer Second Class David Micallef, a public information specialist for the Coast Guard. The model features a built-in strobe light but required manual activation in the case of distress, Micallef said.

Slauson was also using a Gen3 SPOT GPS tracker capable of providing automatic updates to his location every 60 minutes. Slauson also used the device’s “OK” button during his trip to manually log his location, according to the Coast Guard.

After the start, Slauson stayed close to the coast until the following afternoon, when he reached Sanibel Island, the race tracking website raceowl.com shows. At that point, his course began to stray slightly southwest. Slauson last spoke to his wife about 1:15 pm on March 8, Micallef said.

By 1 am the next day, his course began to veer more sharply to the southwest, continuing in that direction for the next six hours until 7:24 am, when the GPS device logged its location for the last time. According to the Coast Guard, Slauson hit the device’s OK button for that last update. There were no more manual or automatic updates after that.

By that point, the GPS device showed he was some 36 miles off the coast of Marco Island, Micallef said.

Searchers started in that area after Slauson’s son called, said Petty Officer Second Class David Micallef, a public information specialist for the Coast Guard. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Collier County Sheriff’s Office assisted with the search.

“He did the right thing and alerted the Coast Guard and we immediately sent out assets to investigate,” Micallef said.

A crew on a Coast Guard plane spotted Slauson’s boat that evening about 53 miles west of Marco Island, Micallef said. The boat was upright at the time.

When a Jayhawk helicopter arrived on scene, crews were able to get a good look at the vessel and its contents and saw no sign of Slauson, Micallef said. In the process of deploying a rescue swimmer near the vessel, the rotor wash, winds and waves caused the boat to capsize. The rescue swimmer was able to bang on the hull and look under with a light but didn’t find Slauson.

No life jackets matching the one Slauson was wearing at the start of the event were located or recovered by searchers during this case. There was no evidence to indicate how he got separated from the boat, but the weather conditions were rough for a vessel of that size, with east winds blowing more than 20 miles per hour and seas of three to five feet, Micallef said.

Slauson worked in information technology and web design until he retired in 2007, according to his LinkedIn page. He also worked part-time as a sailing instructor, the page shows.

“I have had a successful professional career,” the page says, “and now I am going to be living my life long dream of long distance sailing and visiting exotic places.”

Source: NBC-2, Tampa Bay Times