Coast Guard searches for four missing boaters south of San Francisco

MONTEREY, Calif. Four people missing after reporting their sailboat was sinking south of San Francisco are a husband, wife, their 4-year-old son and his cousin, also a child.

Coast Guard Lt. Heather Lampert says the agency was able to gather that information from broken distress calls the family began making around 4:20 p.m. Sunday.

The boaters said their 29-foot sailboat was taking on water and the electronics were failing. Lampert says investigators using the boat's radio signal and radar now believe the call came in from an area about 60 miles west of Monterey, farther south than earlier reported.

The people on board may possibly have made it on to a makeshift life raft before the ship sank, Lampert said, according to CBS San Francisco.

The boat and air search focused there Monday morning. Lampert says the sailboat did not have a working GPS system.

She says the Coast Guard has not received any missing persons' reports.

Coast Guard helicopters, airplanes and boats were searching the area, but had so far not located the missing boaters.

The National Weather Service had issued an advisory throughout the weekend warning boaters of strong winds and rough seas around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mariners "operating smaller vessels should avoid navigating in these conditions," the advisory said.

[tomperanteau]

Audio can be found here http://www.thedailydigest.org/2013/02/25/coast-guard-released-distress-call-of-missing-family/attachment/524667/

[john92021]

water there is too cold to last long. Can get really rough especially this time of year. Pretty dumb taking the kids.

[lillyhorton]

They did have life jackets right? Flares? Aren't there rules to sailing?

[kevcl6750]

My God ! What kind off fool would take two kids on a boat this small in these conditions ?

[BCSBUDDY]

There are such things as miracles. Let's pray in this case that one occures.