ENSENADA, Mexico (AP) — Eric Lamb was doing safety patrol on a 124-mile yacht race when he spotted a boat that appeared too close to Mexico’s Coronado Islands. He never got there.

As his twin-engine boat neared the uninhabited islands just south of San Diego, he stumbled on sailboat shards that were mostly no more than six inches long strewn over about two square miles. He saw a small refrigerator, a white seat cushion and empty containers of yogurt and soy milk.

Over several hours, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter directed him in his search and led him to two dead bodies floating with their backs up, badly scraped and bruised. The Coast Guard recovered a third body and the fourth member of the crew was missing today in California’s second deadly accident this month involving an ocean race.

Lamb, 62, said the 37-foot racing yacht looked like it “had gone through a blender.”

“It was real obvious it had been hit just because the debris was so small,” he said Sunday.

The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu