Coast Guard ends search for Robin Walbridge, missing captain of HMS Bounty

photo: Cpt. Robin Walbridge, 63. Photo: Jaye Bell and Jerry Parisi.

The US Coast Guard announced Thursday that it has suspended a search for the missing captain of the HMS Bounty some 200 miles southeast of Hatteras, North Carolina. Robin Walbridge, 63, is presumed not to have survived.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Walbridge and Christian families," said Capt. Doug Cameron, the chief of incident response for the Coast Guard 5th District. ”Suspending a search and rescue case is one of the hardest decisions we have to make.”

(HT: Andrew Thaler)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002111875047 Niklas Mehner

For some information on the captain see: http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php “we chase hurricanes???” and the discussion in http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=141131&st=200#entry3923151

To me it seems they should not have gone on this voyage at all :(
- Fiddy
  
  There’s still lots of back and forth debate on this, the stupidest arguments coming mostly from non-sailors. U.S. Navy regulations generally recommend large vessels leave port in advance of a hurricane and skirt around it, exactly what the Bounty was trying to do (http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/~cannon/tr8203nc/portcana/text/sect8.htm). My boat is quite small (30′) and would probably stay in port to be smashed to bits, but I am fortunate enough to keep her in a protected bay (San Francisco) that rarely sees hurricanes.
- http://twitter.com/chriscoreline chris coreline
  
  sailing anarchy is a great site, but they can be a bit cruel. QED.
  
  .
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6VEPHFV2EU5OQ264UHBKNEF2UQ R J

Correct me if I am wrong, like ya gotta say that on teh interwebs ; ), she is a replica of the HMS Bounty, not the HMS Bounty. The replica is not a Royal Navy ship and does not warrant the HMS designation.
- Boundegar
  
  You’re wrong. She’s driftwood.