Update on Paul's rescue efforts

My friend Paul is still missing. The crew of friends and family is working hard to keep up the search... Considering the weather in the area he set sail from, they believe his boat was blown further off than the area previously searched. There is now a facebook fan page for updates.

and the official LET'S FIND PAUL site

Here is today's update from the info site:

We have made quite a lot of progress in the last couple of days with getting the media onside to get the awareness out to the NZ public and also to Paul's friends and friends of friends around the world and the many people Paul has touched.

We over here are really feeling the beginnings of a ground swell being created by the collective energies of you all supporting him, be it by suggestions, donations, messages of support or whatever and the momentum is building!!

Yesterday we sent up a private helicopter to scour the Eastern Cape one more time. Regan and Warwick, the Tauranga driving force, went up in a deer stalking chopper - they are awesome pilots and fantastic spotters - and they spent all day looking in every nook and cranny along the coast for signs of Paul, Tafadzwa or debris.

They found nothing at all. This has strengthened our hope that he is still on the Taf and just needs finding, as we have felt all along but yesterday's result has given us a little peace of mind and checked another box.

So we are back on the task of raising as much funds as possible for a further search.

Watch out for Kristen and Regan on TV3 Campbell Live either tonight or tomorrow. For those of you overseas I'll post a link for replay tomorrow or the next day.

Our strongest theory is that Paul has had some kind of gear failure in the storm on Friday night/ early Sat morning. The wind has been consistently blowing SW since then. We think that in such a case he would have chosen to sail with the wind instead of against it which he would have needed to do in order to continue on to Gizzy.

So, he would then be heading in either a NE or NW direction. There was also the cyclones in Fiji from which the winds would have possibly pushed him back West.

I spoke at length today with the Airforce Wing Commander who flew both of the sorties in the Orion's. He is a very experienced Search & Rescue pilot. He explained to me how they calibrate the radar and perform the search. The radar the Orion's are equipped with is specially integrated to find periscopes, which as you can imagine will be a lot harder to find than a 35 ft steel hull which is a perfect radar reflector.

The Wing Commander said, that while of course not ever being able to guarantee anything 100%, that he believed that had the Taf been in the area they searched, he would have found it.

However, the search did not begin until Tuesday morning, by which time Paul could well have sailed off for for nearly 3 days in a NW or NE direction and been out of the search area. Which is why we very much believe he is out there.

The Wing Commander also said that he ALWAYS finds a beacon.

What we want to do now is search where we haven't searched before for Paul and Nita on Tafadzwa. So for that we need to raise as much as we possibly can!!

Anyone in NZ can now walk into any ASB and ask to donate to Paul and they will have the bank details or see the notes section here for bank transfer details.

Overseas people wishing to donate can use the PAYPAL link on the website www.letsfindpaul.co.nz

The cost of this search is monumental--renting the plane and equipment for one hour of searching is over $800 per hour. The family and friends are financing the search on their own at this point and every little bit donated helps. Time is of the essence and the clock is ticking. You can donate by Paypal--every little bit is appreciated. Not to mention prayer.

thank you from the bottom of my heart.