Coast Guard and Marin County agencies shift to recovery search for missing Tomales Bay kayaker

Authorities in Marin County said they have ended their rescue effort for a missing Tomales Bay kayaker after two days of scanning the waters from the air and with boats and finding no sign of the man.

Marin County Fire Battalion Chief Jeremy Pierce said members of his department, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Marin County Sheriff’s Office have notified and met with the family “and we are in recovery mode at this point.”

Coast Guard and Sonoma County Sheriff’s helicopters, along with rescue boats, were employed in the search through mid-Saturday. A lone sonar boat will carry on with that effort, he said.

“We’ve flown about 6 or 7 hours and we used a FLIR, a forward-looking infrared camera; additionally we had two rescue watercraft and three boats searching today (Saturday). So far there’s been no indication of the missing gentleman,” Pierce said.

The kayaker, whose identity has not yet been released, went missing Friday. His friend called for help around 6:30 p.m. after the two boaters became separated. The caller saw his friend’s headlamp adrift in the water and then realized the other kayak had overturned, according to Sgt. Brenton Schneider, a spokesperson for the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.

The kayakers were 200 yards south of Lawson’s Landing when they became separated. The boat ramp and campground there are tucked just inside the rough mouth of Tomales Bay.

For boaters, the area can be especially treacherous, with wave, wind and tidal action, combined with sometimes poor visibility, leading to conditions that can catch even experienced mariners off guard.

Searchers faced 20 mph winds that were kicking up 2- to 4-foot waves, Pierce said. The search was called off at 2:40 a.m. Saturday and was resumed again later in the morning.

“Conditions were pretty harsh,” he said. They found the missing kayak near the sea wall at Lawson’s Landing, he said.

On Saturday, the Sheriff’s Office had a diver on standby at the rescue area and was also using drones to look for the missing kayaker. The Coast Guard was leading the search efforts and was joined by rangers from Point Reyes National Seashore, along with the Marin County and North Bay fire departments. Searchers were looking along the shoreline as well as in the bay.

Authorities were hopeful the midday low tide would aid in visibility as water levels recede in the bay, Schneider said.

The search was focused on the area of the bay inland from Sand Point, the jutting dune-covered land mass that defines the bay’s entrance.

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or andrew.graham@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @AndrewGraham88.

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at 707-521-5209 or kathleen.coates@att.net.