Jim Gray Missing at Sea
My long time friend and mentor Jim Gray took his sail boat out for a trip to the Farallon Island yesterday and has not been heard from since. The coast guard has been searching since last night. Jim is an extremely experienced sailor with more than 40 years experience. This is very worrisome.
Those of you who do not know Jim: he is considered to be the father of transaction processing and his contributions to the field are innumerable. Many of us owe our careers to Jim. Lets pray for his safe return.
Update 1/30: It has been 48 hours and Jim has not yet been found. Of all the news reports this Mercury News article has most detail on the purpose of the trip and Jim's sailing habits.
Update 1/31:It has been tree days now and still no sign. The coast guard held a press conference this afternoon in which they detailed the search patterns. They expressed that they also are completely baffled why they cannot find the ship. The weather has been absolutely perfect in the past days. However they have limited resources and will have to call off the search after tonight.
There are private efforts underway with using satellite and other imagery to try and locate Jim. There is a large community contributing to these efforts.
Update 2/2: You can help search for Jim by inspecting satellite images
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Please prayer for him!
I am sure GOD's will with him.
He will be back soon, we are waiting for him.
Reza Wahadj
If the winds have been N-NW, why haven't the coast guard searched the pocket near shore south of half-moon bay. Are they assuming that people from shore would've seen a sailboat or raft there?
If things went wrong when he was beyond cell phone range (20 miles or so?), he'd have a hard time going upwind but he could easily be anywhere within a couple hundred miles in any other direction.
I live about 8000 miles away so I can't help look from shore, all I can do is pray for Jim, his friends and family.
Dochasach, I'm sure you know this isn't the Coast Guard's first search. The search patterns you've seen are modeled according to the currents for that area and the wind and weather patterns recorded in that specific time frame. The people who carried out that search want more than anything to find Jim and will do everything reasonable to do so, guided by their vast experience with SAR in that specific area. Give them the credit due them and keep praying for Jim and his family.