Posted on 01/29/2007 7:41:32 PM PST by LurkedLongEnough
The U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a prize-winning computer scientist who failed to return from a quick trip to the Farallon Islands on Sunday.
Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Amy Marrs, said Jim Gray, 63, was reported missing by his wife at 8:35 p.m. A ten-year veteran of Microsoft and winner of the prestigious A.M. Turing Award, Gray is a technical fellow whose work focuses on databases and transaction processing systems.
Gray set out from San Francisco alone on Sunday morning in his 40-foot sailboat named ``Tenacious.'' The conditions were good, and Gray was expected back Sunday evening.
Gray's wife alerted the Coast Guard after her husband failed to return and did not answer cell phone calls.
``Our thoughts are with Jim and his family as we hope for his safe return,'' said Doug Free, a spokesman for Microsoft.
Marrs said Gray is an experienced sailor and that his boat was fully outfitted with emergency gear, including a radio and life raft.
The Coast Guard mobilized a C-130 Hercules fixed-wing airplane, an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter, an 87-foot patrol boat and a 47-foot motor life boat for an all-night search, but did not find any sign of the missing vessel and did not pick up any distress signal.
On Monday, two more boats were added to the search, which was extended 78 nautical miles west of the Farallons for a total of about 4,000 square miles. ``We are searching a huge area,'' said Marrs. The Farallons are 27 nautical miles off the San Francisco coast.
In 1998, Gray was awarded the A.M. Turing Award by the Association for Computing Machinery for seminal contributions to database and transaction processing research.
Recently, Gray had been working to create a world-wide telescope -- a distributed database of the entire world's astonomy information. He was also helping to build a digital library that would include all the world's scientific literature and data.
That was the same training cruise that we shelled a Japanese freighter with the 5" main battery salvos. Fortunately, we only bracketed them; no hits.
The floating target was about 180 degrees away...OOPS!
Oh, and one of our two destroyer-escorts sideswiped a Japanese lumber ship while pulling out of port at Eureka; that cost them several weeks getting repairs in Hunter's Point.
Unforgettable voyage for a young man!
The skipper still holding a grudge in '64? That could have been a bad career move...
It sounds like a memorable cruise.
I carry a 406 epirb and life raft on my 28 foot open boat, seeing as how I cruise the Bahamas with my children aboard, or at least used to. I didn't relish the thought of seeing them floating at sea in only life jackets if anything had happened.
I knew personally some folk who that happened to, who died of hypothermian waiting for a resucue plane that never came. 'Course, they were lost when their plane went down, but the principle is the same.
One thing that I wonder, they are always saying the USCG spent X number of dollars and man hours conducting this or that search...aren't the guys getting paid no matter what they are doing? The fuel expended by SAR aircraft and vessels is another thing entirely, though.
How about these hikers in the mountains in winter who may not have much money. Could they buy a good radio beacon for $200 or so? What is the entry point for such an item?
You asked me a question I don't know the answer to. I am fairly certain that there is no cheaper EPIRB than the 406's, which are around $500.
I notice that we have the ability to track some terrorists through their cell phones, so possibly there is some cell phone related device than can fix a position? One thing I do know is that an accurate hand held GPS can be bought very cheaply...anyone who is in cell phone range can call for help with a very exact position. I understand that you can now also buy an antenna to attach to a cell phone which can add range if you can figure a way to get it higher up.
Ramius, what solutions do you hear of for such things?
Ok. The ship did not have a wreck. NO wreckage found. No sign of anything floating. Weather condition not too rough. Nothing to be found. Like he was devoured by a tsunami or somthing. Let's dismiss alien abduction also!
Logical deduction: Did he really sail? Possible still on land? Are we searching land? Guess not.
I am sure, the loaded MS guys can ask the coastguard for a sub to go under and search the area!
But I'm still on the idea that he did not sail.
good point and merited too..........
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