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Trans-Pacific solo sculler located after sending SOS |
| Thursday, May 5, 2004 The Associated Press |
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The Japan Coast Guard on Tuesday found a Japanese adventurer who issued an SOS just weeks into a seven-month voyage to scull across the Pacific to the United States. Ikuo Tateo, 62, hadn't made his daily radio contact with supporters since April 25, 10 days after leaving the port town of Taneichi, Iwate Prefecture, for San Francisco, coast guard official Akio Yoshimoto said. A search aircraft spotted Tateo's 7-meter-long boat Eolia on Tuesday about 1,400 km east of Taneichi, the official said. The coast guard team confirmed that the boat was the Eolia based on a distress signal that identified the vessel, he said. Rescuers saw someone they believe to be Tateo moving around on deck, he said. A coast guard vessel was expected to reach the boat later Tuesday. Tateo, who in 2001 became the oldest Japanese to make a solo nonstop sailing circumnavigation, had hoped to become the first person to complete the 9,000-km trans-Pacific voyage using a single scull, supporters said on his Web site. He was carrying food for 300 meals on his converted sloop and had been scheduled to reach San Francisco in February. He had only gone one-seventh of the way before he was reported unaccounted for by supporters |
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