Missing sailor rescued after 12 days at sea near Hawaii
| Honolulu
聽A sailor who was missing at sea for about 12 days has been found uninjured about 65 miles south of Honolulu.
The Coast Guard says聽Ron聽Ingraham聽was weak, hungry and dehydrated when a Navy ship reached him Tuesday morning.
The Coast Guard had been searching for him since receiving his mayday call on Thanksgiving reporting flooding in his small sail boat about 50 miles west of Kailua-Kona. In an audio clip of the call provided by the Coast Guard, he's heard saying he was in danger of sinking.
A 12,000 square mile search was suspended Dec. 1.
"When the commanding officer for the Coast Guard told me he was going to call off the search, I said, 'Man, I don't think you should call of the search because I don't think he's gone,'" Zakary Ingraham, the son of the missing sailor told Hawaii Now News.聽
Then, the Coast Guard picked up another mayday call Tuesday morning. The guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton was nearby. Crewmembers reached聽Ingraham聽and gave him water and food. They're also trying to repair his sailboat.
"Both his masts was broken. He was sailing on a little auxiliary sail, trying to make his way back," Molokai fisherman and Ingraham's friend Dedrick Manaba .
Carr said the Coast Guard would either escort Ingraham to Molokai if he could fix his sailboat at sea, or bring him to Honolulu if repairs couldn't be made.
On Nov. 30, one of Ingraham's friends twhy they hadn't lost hope.聽鈥淗e鈥檚 a tough 67-year-old guy. And I believe with all his experience and stuff, I believe he鈥檚 still out there either on his boat or on his kayak. I think he鈥檚 still out there. And I鈥檓 hoping they can find him,鈥� said聽Dedric Manaba, a commercial fisherman on Molokai and a friend of Ingraham.
