Chinese mariner Guo Chuan has gone missing on a solo trans-Pacific voyage that was set to break a world record.
Guo’s support team said they not been in contact with him with him since 3 p.m. Tuesday Beijing time (3 a.m. ET).
His trimaran “Qingdao China,” named after his home city in eastern China, was spotted 900 nautical miles off the west coast of Hawaii — but Guo was nowhere to be found.
The US Coast Guard has sent out several rescue teams, including an aircraft and two ships, to search for him but has had no luck yet.
“Crew of USS Mankin Island has visited the boat but did not find Guo. They collected all Guo’s belongings aboard for his family. They lowered the mainsail around 11.50 a.m.. Search and rescue is continuing on the sea,” the latest update said Thursday.
Guo had ‘deep love for sailing’
Departing on October 18 from San Francisco, Guo wanted to beat the solo non-stop trans-Pacific world record.
He planned to reach Shanghai in 20 days, breaking the previous 21-day record set by Italian Giovanni Soldini. His intended route was about 7,000 nautical miles.
Dubbed “Chinese No. 1 Mariner,” Guo is regarded as a national hero in China.
He is the country’s first-ever professional sailor with two world records: the 40ft solo non-stop circumnavigation world record (finished in 138 days in 2013) and Arctic Ocean Northeast Passage non-stop sailing world record (12 days 3 hrs in 2015).
Miao Hanlin, a 24-year-old fan of Guo’s who met his hero three years ago, said the sailor has a strong personality.
“He seemed not good at words, but I can tell he had the qualities for the great undertaking like global sailing,” he told CNN. “He had deep love for sailing as well as the grit to do it.”
In an official statement, the Consulate General of China in Los Angeles said that the consulate would spare no effort to push forward the search and rescue work, with assistance from both China and US government.
Brush with death
During a 2011 trans-Atlantic race, Guo had a close call he later recounted to China’s official news agency Xinhua.
“I was waist deep in the water. If hadn’t grabbed the rope, I would had been thrown in the water. In that scenario, I would never catch up with the ship. My chance of survival would be none,” he told Xinhua.
“I fear being separated from the ship when I am sailing solo.”
Before embarking on his voyage, Guo appeared to be in high spirits.
“I am very confident to go now. See you in Shanghai within 20 days,” Guo said before he left.