(UPDATED, 8:15 a.m. Tuesday)
A massive search continues today for five missing fishermen who were aboard a boat that capsized late Sunday through Monday night off Liverpool.
But there was no sign of the missing men, their life-raft or the vessel, Lt. Peter Ryan, spokesman for Joint Task Force Atlantic, said Tuesday morning.
“Everyone is doing their very best to find the vessel and crew,” Ryan said Tuesday morning.
An emergency beacon was set off just after 11 p.m. Sunday, after the 14-metre vessel named the Miss Ally went down in heavy seas and near hurricane-force winds.
Seas were reported at eight to 10 metres and there was zero visibility and blowing snow, Ryan said Monday.
By 6 a.m. Tuesday, searchers had covered 7,000 square miles - or 18,130 square kilometres - and is growing, Ryan said.
The search area is still growing and moving further to the east due to the weather and the drift, he said Tuesday.
George Hopkins, the father of one of the missing men, 27-year-old Joel Hopkins, said he was last speaking with those aboard at 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
The others on board are Steven Cole Nickerson, known as Cole, from Woods Harbour; Katlin Nickerson, the boat’s skipper, from Woods Harbour; Billy Hatfield from Cape Sable Island and Tyson Townsend from Woods Harbour.
A Department of Fisheries aircraft flew three different missions overnight Monday and into Tuesday, along with a C-130 Hercules aircraft and Aurora from 14 Wing Greenwood. Both aircraft from Greenwood have since returned to base, Ryan said, and the Hercules is expected to return to the site later this morning.
Two Canadian Coast Guard vessels called out Sunday night, Sir William Alexander and Earl Grey, are continuing the search, Ryan said.
The weather was very poor overnight, with seas were described as about six metres high and winds were very high, he said.
A Cormorant chopper was also at the scene, but “was having a very difficult time to tackle those winds,” Ryan said.
It returned to base and returned Tuesday morning when the weather improved, he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard was also sending an Ocean Sentry aircraft to assist in the search for the capsized vessel today, Ryan said.
Transport Canada records show the vessel is owned by Katlin Nickerson. The fishing boat, made from moulded reinforced plastic, was built by Hubbie’s Boat Builders Ltd. of Clark’s Harbour in 2006, the records say.
On Sunday, a U.S. Coast Guard aircraft crew from Cape Cod spotted a spot a life-raft in the area overnight Sunday into Monday, Ryan said, but there has been no sign of anything else.
U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson said the Falcon, a fixed-wing aircraft, left at 12:20 a.m., went out to the scene and didn’t get back until 3 a.m.
While over the area where the vessel reportedly went down, coast guard crews saw a life-raft but visibility was so poor they couldn’t tell if anyone was aboard or nearby, said the officer who answered the phone at the Cape Cod station.
“We saw the life-raft via a flare,” he said.
The crew dropped a marker in the water that provides “total water current information,” he said. “It … lets us know where the drift is going.”
After 20 minutes, the crew had to return to base because the weather was so bad, the spokesman said.
George Hopkins said the Miss Ally’s crew is experienced.
“They are to a certain extent, but the captain is really young,” he said. “I don’t know how experienced you can be when he’s only 21 or so. … The oldest one is only about 32 or 33.”
Hopkins said the crew probably had survival suits aboard. However, he said fishermen don’t wear them while they’re working because they restrict movement.
A prayer vigil was held Monday evening at Calvary Baptist Church in Woods Harbour, in the midst of numerous power outages affecting the community.
Eddie Nickerson, the warden of the Municipality of Barrington, said the community of 7,000 was waiting anxiously for any news.
“I know all of the boys that were on the boat,” he said. “It’s a fragile situation.
“I just can’t picture myself in the position of the families.
“(But) it’s good that much of the community is very supportive around here. Friends and family have gathered at the families’ homes. They’re all comforting each other and doing what they can do to make a terrible situation a little more comfortable.”
Brian Medel, Eva Hoare and Patricia Brooks Arenburg, Staff Reporters and The Canadian Press