FRISCO, North Carolina — The U.S. Coast Guard has called off the search for an 82-year-old Florida man who went missing while sailing to Maine, according to a press release from the Coast Guard’s Sector North Carolina.
Richard Tomlinson, of Clearwater, Florida, was apparently heading up the coastline to Maine when his sailboat “Fulfillment” washed aground on a North Carolina barrier island beach on Monday, according to the Coast Guard.
Tomlinson departed from a marina in Riviera Beach, Florida and his sailboat was found on a beach in Frisco, an unincorporated tourist town on the barrier island of Hatteras Island.
A Jayhawk helicopter crew and others from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City and the crew of the Coast Guard cutter Rollin Fritch searched the water and air, covering around 2,700 square miles, for nearly two days before the search was called off Wednesday.
“Making the choice to suspend a search by no means is a simple decision and a decision the Coast Guard never takes lightly,” Cmdr. Stephen Matadobra, Fifth District Enforcement Branch Chief, said Wednesday. “We extend our sincere condolences to Mr. Tomlinson’s friends and family in the wake of this tragedy.”