Update: Overdue boater found

The Coast Guard has found an overdue boater from Haines waiting out the weather in a protected bay north of Juneau.

Lt. Ryan Erickson with Coast Guard Sector Juneau says 57-year-old Scott Pierce left Haines Sunday morning aboard a small sail boat, bound for the Alaska Folk Festival.  He was supposed to arrive in Juneau on Monday and was reported overdue by a friend Wednesday afternoon.

Erickson says Pierce was found about 4:45 p.m. Wednesday in William Henry Bay, about 30 miles north of Juneau.

“He’d been there for a couple of days sheltered from weather and it’s pretty much a black hole for any communications, cell or radio, so there was no way that he was able to hear our broadcasts and anybody could hear his,” Erickson said.

He said the Coast Guard Cutter Liberty was looking for Pierce and happened to see the Darshan tucked in the back of the bay.   The Coast Guard had also deployed a Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Sitka to look for the missing vessel.

The 25-foot  sail boat has a small outboard motor. Erickson says Pierce has plenty of supplies and hopes to leave William Henry Bay on Thursday, arriving in Auke Bay by mid-afternoon.

When Pierce was reported missing, the Coast Guard notified mariners and the media.

“We found him so we don’t need anybody looking for him,” he said.

Erickson believes Pierce was coming to watch the Folk Festival and was not supposed to perform in it.

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