Missing sailor rescued after 12 days at sea near Hawaii

Ron Ingraham, a boater missing since Thanksgiving was found by US Coast Guard, alive and hungry about 50 miles west of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

 A sailor who was missing at sea for about 12 days has been found uninjured about 65 miles south of Honolulu.

The Coast Guard says Ron Ingraham was weak, hungry and dehydrated when a Navy ship reached him Tuesday morning.

The Coast Guard had been searching for him since receiving his mayday call on Thanksgiving reporting flooding in his small sail boat about 50 miles west of Kailua-Kona. In an audio clip of the call provided by the Coast Guard, he's heard saying he was in danger of sinking.

A 12,000 square mile search was suspended Dec. 1.

"When the commanding officer for the Coast Guard told me he was going to call off the search, I said, 'Man, I don't think you should call of the search because I don't think he's gone,'" Zakary Ingraham, the son of the missing sailor told Hawaii Now News. 

Then, the Coast Guard picked up another mayday call Tuesday morning. The guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Hamilton was nearby. Crewmembers reached Ingraham and gave him water and food. They're also trying to repair his sailboat.

"Both his masts was broken. He was sailing on a little auxiliary sail, trying to make his way back," Molokai fisherman and Ingraham's friend Dedrick Manaba told Hawaii Now News.

Carr said the Coast Guard would either escort Ingraham to Molokai if he could fix his sailboat at sea, or bring him to Honolulu if repairs couldn't be made.

On Nov. 30, one of Ingraham's friends told KHON TV Channel 2 why they hadn't lost hope. “He’s a tough 67-year-old guy. And I believe with all his experience and stuff, I believe he’s still out there either on his boat or on his kayak. I think he’s still out there. And I’m hoping they can find him,” said Dedric Manaba, a commercial fisherman on Molokai and a friend of Ingraham.