The Coast Guard and the Hawaii Fire Department suspended a search Tuesday for missing missionary sailor Aaron Bremner, who was aboard the 74-foot sailboat, Hawaii Aloha, when it capsized 4 miles off the Kona coast and then ran aground off the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai.
On Tuesday, Hawaii County firefighters found clothing but they could not confirm that it was the clothing the missing man was wearing.
The Coast Guard was notified 6:36 a.m. of a flare sighting Saturday from the Hawaii County Fire Department.
The flares came from the crew of the Hawaii Aloha, who abandoned ship into a life raft, the Coast Guard said.
The boat capsized at about 5:45 a.m. Saturday
Four of the five boaters were in the life raft, and were rescued by the fire department. But Bremner was the fifth boater, who was reported missing.
The Coast Guard conducted 26 sorties, 80 mission hours and covered 676 square miles using a helicopter, a cutter, a patrol boat and several crews from the Hawaii Fire Department.
Bremner had moved to Kona about 15 months ago to join YWAM Ships Kona, a Christian missionary group “Youth with a Mission,” and become a full-time volunteer crew member.
When a series of waves hit the vessel broadside and flipped it, Bremner had been asleep in his berth and couldn’t be reached because items in the passageway blocked his door, a spokesman for YWAM Ships said.
The sailing boat was scheduled to leave Tuesday for a two-year mission to Christmas Island, Micronesia and Australia.
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