Lost Kayakers!!!

[Ray]

From the Cape Cod yesterday. not good!!!

http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/twokayakers13.htm

[Wes]

Saw a follow up story posted on another site. Looks pretty tragic.

LI Dad Asks For Public's Help In Finding Missing Kayakers
Man's Daughter, Companion Disappeared After Going Kayaking Off Cape Cod

POSTED: 9:08 p.m. EDT October 13, 2003
UPDATED: 9:25 p.m. EDT October 13, 2003

HARWICH, Mass. -- A Long Island man is offering a $5,000 reward for information that will help authorities find his daughter and a companion who disappeared after they went kayaking in the waters off Cape Cod.

Mary Jagoda and Sara Aranoff were reported missing Sunday after they failed to return from a kayaking trip that began at a boat launch in Harwichport, Mass.

The Coast Guard on Monday found two capsized kayaks 1 mile south of Monomoy Island that matched the description of the kayaks belonging to Jagoda and Aranoff. Searchers held out hope that Jagoda and Aranoff might have made it to the island, a wildlife refuge where there are several shelters.

Jagoda's father, Louis Jagoda, of Huntington, N.Y., said Monday he would offer the reward to anyone coming forward with information on their whereabouts.

"We're trying to ask the general public to look harder. We're trying to encourage them to look harder by offering money," he said. "I need my daughter back."

Mary Jagoda is a junior at Brandeis University. Her father said she is in good physical condition and took a sea-kayaking course several years ago.

Aranoff is from Maryland. It was not immediately known what town she's from or whether she is also a student at Brandeis.

"They were visiting friends in Harwich, and they were taking turns going out in single-person kayaks," Jagoda said. "They got the fog behind them and they got lost in the fog. The girls could be on that island or they could be somewhere on shore. God knows what happened."

Coast Guard Petty Officer Amy Thomas said conditions were foggy when the two friends set out on their kayaking expedition Sunday afternoon.

"The visibility was pretty bad," she said.

Park rangers searched an abandoned lighthouse on Monomoy on Monday afternoon, but there was no sign of the two women, said Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith, who said the island is about 8 miles long and several miles wide.

"It's a large island to search by foot," he said.

The kayaks were located in an area known as Pollock Rip Channel, Smith said. Several Coast Guard boats continued to search the area Monday afternoon, along with harbormaster boats from Chatham and Harwich.

Jagoda and Aranoff set out from a boat launch in Harwichport around 3 p.m. Sunday in a pair of 8-foot plastic kayaks, the Coast Guard said. A friend reported them overdue at 4 p.m. It was unclear if they had life jackets with them.

[notime]

Some hope.


Island focus of search for missing kayakers
By Douglas Belkin, Globe Staff, Globe Correspondent, 10/14/2003


olice were searching a barren island off the coast of Cape Cod yesterday for two missing college students who disappeared near Harwichport in thick fog Sunday afternoon shortly after taking two plastic kayaks out for a short paddle.
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Mary Jagoda, 20, and Sara Aronoff, 19, launched their 8-foot kayaks from the beach at about 3 p.m. wearing T-shirts, bathing suits, and life vests. When they hadn't returned about 40 minutes later, two friends called the local fire department, which initiated a search.

Yesterday morning at 10:34, a helicopter located the two kayaks tied together floating about a mile off the coast of Monomoy Island, and about an hour later, rescuers discovered footprints on the island, the mother of one of the kayakers said yesterday.

''There were at least two sets, but whether they're old or new and whether they belonged to them there's no way to prove,'' said Jagoda's mother, Anna May. ''They're searching there with dogs and said they would stay out there till sunset and hopefully get more manpower out there tomorrow.''

When asked if rescuers had determined if the barefoot prints were the same size as the prints the kayakers would leave, Aronoff's mother, Victoria Aronoff, said: ''I didn't have the heart to ask.''

Jagoda, a junior at Brandeis University, and Aronoff, a junior at Franklin & Marshall College, were staying with friends in Harwichport for the long weekend. Victoria Aronoff said both women are athletic and strong swimmers. Both competed on their swim teams in high school, and Jagoda took a sea kayaking course several years ago, her father said.

Speaking last night from her home in Bethesda, Md., Victoria Aronoff said she is hopeful that the women became disoriented in the fog and spent the night drifting in the water until first light, when they saw Monomoy. The island, about a half-mile wide and 6 miles long, is a deserted bird sanctuary about 10 miles away from where they departed. She said she is hopeful that the kayaks were at sea because they drifted off the island when the women went wandering ashore to look for water.

Four search and rescue teams -- two with dogs -- had covered about 80 percent of the island before night fell, Aronoff said. Last night, State Police assured her they would be looking for the women with a helicopter equipped with heat-seeking scopes.

Park rangers searched an abandoned lighthouse on Monomoy yesterday afternoon, but there was no sign of the two women, said Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith. ''It's a large island to search by foot,'' he said. Monomoy is south of Chatham.

The kayaks were located in an area known as Pollock Rip Channel, Smith said. Several Coast Guard boats continued to search the area yesterday afternoon, along with harbormaster boats from Chatham and Harwich, he said.

''I only want to know when they come and tell me she's safe,'' said Anna May Jagoda, ''She's a very nice girl, very smart and determined. She was just becoming happy.''

Jagoda's brother, Jake, died in terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001. He was 24 and had been working in the towers for two months. ''It gets worse,'' Anna May Jagoda said yesterday on a cellphone from Woods Hole. ''We had a baby that died 20 years ago from a birth defect.'' Mary is the youngest of the three children.

Jagoda's parents flew in from their home in Huntington on Long Island, N.Y., yesterday and went to the search headquarters at the Coast Guard station in Woods Hole.

Jagoda's father, Louis, offered a $5,000 reward to anyone who comes forward with information on the whereabouts of the women.

''We're trying to ask the general public to look harder. We're trying to encourage them to look harder by offering money,'' he said in a telephone interview. ''I need my daughter back.''

Victoria Aronoff spent the day on the phone from her Maryland home speaking with many of the half-dozen law enforcement agencies working on the search. The Barnstable Sheriff's Department, the Mashpee, Harwich, and Chatham police departments, as well as the State Police and Coast Guard, all played roles.

The Coast Guard said a cutter would search through the night, and State Police told Aronoff that if their helicopter found anyone on the island overnight a rescue team would be dispatched immediately.

''She's a very resilient kid, very determined,'' said Victoria Aronoff, who expressed hope that the women had made it to the island. ''We're hopeful a team will be sent in as soon as that heat-seeking helicopter sees her.''

Globe Correspondent Brian Tarcy contributed to this article. Material from Associated Press was also used.