Family prays couple is found at sea

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

A California couple's anxious family, some of whom waved goodbye to their parents as they set sail from Nawiliwili Harbor two weeks ago, were clinging to hope last night that the couple would be found in stormy seas 950 miles north-northwest of O'ahu.

Brian and Helen Moore of California had been sailing north, northwest of Hawai'i when their boat ran into trouble. News 8 photo

That, and a numbing disbelief.

"It hasn't fully hit me yet," said Kevin Moore, one of the couple's five grown children.

"We've got prayer chains going all across the country," said his wife, Anne. The younger Moores, who live in nearby Irvine, were taking comfort in a visit from their pastor and his wife.

"Brian and Helen are very strong in their faith, too," she added. "I know that's helping them through this ordeal."

Hope stretched thin late yesterday afternoon when searches of two life rafts believed to belong to the Moores' sailboat, the Azure, turned up nothing.

Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer David Mosley said two patrol craft — a Coast Guard C-130 and a Navy P-3C Orion — would continue searching through the night.

The Coast Guard cutter Polar Sea, which had been en route to Honolulu from Seattle before it was diverted, was due to arrive at the scene about 10 p.m.

Brian Moore, 68, worked as an engineer, and his 65-year-old wife as a bookkeeper before they retired and began to enjoy traveling. They had left California in mid-May on a sail through the South Pacific, which took them through the Marquesas, Tahiti and Bora Bora.

The younger Moores and Kevin's sister Kathleen and her husband, Ernie Hamann, of Westminster, Calif., had vacationed with their parents on Kaua'i two weeks ago, just before their departure Nov. 6, Anne said.

"We have a picture of them heading out on their sail," she said.

Nobody suspected a winter storm would bring 25-foot seas and winds of nearly 60 mph.

Their craft, a 32-foot sloop, contained an emergency beacon, and the Coast Guard began receiving its distress signal before daybreak Thursday.

A Coast Guard C-130 patrol aircraft from Barbers Point found the raft and reported that two people could be detected moving about beneath its canopy.

But yesterday, Coast Guard officials re-examined the video records and said the image did not clearly show people aboard, said Lt. James Garland, search-and-rescue spokesman.

The Coast Guard summoned a commercial container ship in the area and a fishing vessel to assist with the rescue, Garland said. They arrived on the scene yesterday morning.

On Thursday, the C-130 had dropped emergency gear, including a radio, on a set of three rafts bound together. The rafts appear to have broken apart, Garland added, making it uncertain which rafts belonged to the Azure.

Shortly after noon yesterday, the fishing crew examined the canopied raft and found it unoccupied, Garland said. The beacon was afloat on its buoy, still signaling, he added, and there was no sign of the emergency equipment.

Kevin Moore said the craft had two rafts, and the fishing crew searched a second raft but found it empty, Mosely said. Two other rafts belonging to the Coast Guard have been found, he added.

The Moores' children, which include three other daughters, are hoping their parents' sailing experience will serve them well.

"My dad got his first sailboat when I was in fifth grade," Kevin Moore said, "and that was a long time ago."

"We still have hope that they'll be found," his wife added.

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.