Mexico suspends search for missing sailboat with 2 Alaskans aboard

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s navy has suspended a search for three Americans, including two Alaskans, who went missing along with their sailboat off Mexico’s northern Pacific coast, the U.S Coast Guard said Wednesday.

A Coast Guard statement said that Mexican forces and U.S. assets had searched about 200,000 square nautical miles, an area larger than California, and had found no sign of the missing people or the boat.

The three Americans — Kerry O’Brien and Frank O’Brien of Girdwood and their friend William Gross — were aboard the 44-foot sailing vessel Ocean Bound when they were last heard from April 4, officials have said.

They reported being near the Mexico port city of Mazatlán at the time. The three had planned to stop for supplies in Cabo San Lucas at the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula before proceeding to San Diego.

The Coast Guard has said marinas in Baja California had not reported seeing the vessel.