Virginia boaters go missing after damage from heavy weather

• The Azores Islands are a mid-Atlantic archipelago.
• Yanni Nikopoulos and Dale Jones departed Hampton, Virginia on June 8.
• The Coast Guard aired an urgent marine information broadcast to nearby boats.

The U.S. Coast Guard is looking for two persons who went missing after choosing to turn around and sail back to Virginia in their weather-damaged yacht rather than going on to Portugal’s Azores.

Yanni Nikopoulos and Dale Jones, They both 65 years old and locals of Virginia Beach. They recently reported missing by the Coast Guard on Tuesday.

The Azores Islands are a mid-Atlantic archipelago and Nikopoulos and Jones departed Hampton, Virginia on June 8.

Five days later the couple informed Jones’ daughter that their boat badly destroyed by bad weather.

At the time of the call, the two were about 460 miles east of Virginia Beach.

Jones’ daughter notified the Coast Guard on Friday that she hadn’t heard from them and she worried about their welfare.

Read More: Terrifying photos depicts moment passengers rushed to escape plane on FIRE

The approximate location of the missing boaters flown twice by Hercules crews. The Coast Guard aired an urgent marine information broadcast to nearby boats.

In order to determine the optimum search area for air crews, the Coast Guard is monitoring radio and cell phone pings and coordinating with its counterparts in Bermuda.

Our coordination efforts “need to throw a wide and intentional net in cases like these, where there are so many unknowns,” Gainey said.

It takes a lot of detective effort, but everything is done to find these two people and return them to their families.