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The search and rescue effort was managed by MRCC Fort de France in Martinique. They used both air and surface assets to search the area, while the U.S. Coast Guard provided them drift data to establish those search areas. From what I know, Fort de France was searching until last Saturday but I cannot verify that.
If we look at cases similar to this one but are in the U.S. Coast Guard's area of responsibility, we might see a search that lasts for three full days, but that of course depends on other extenuating circumstances that may apply. Unfortunately, this case reminds us that no matter how experienced a boater may be, drinking clouds our good senses and poor decisions are more apt to occur. There is very little reason for a case like this to happen. I once had a fender start floating away from my boat when I was anchored in Biscayne Bay, just off Key Biscayne. There was no drinking involved but that did not stop me from making a bad decision to swim after it. The wind was gusting, the fender was moving away fast and I was barely catching up to it, but eventually I did. Now I'm not the strongest swimmer and I was exhausted, still having to swim back to the boat, and it was then and there that I decided to never do something like that again.
As the email indicates, the missing skipper was a prior Coastie but I don't know how long he was in.
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