foxhole

This was posted off of another fishing site yesterday and it made the OC register and MSNBC today. Pretty weird and sad shit if the guy is not found...


http://www.ocregister.com/news/bunke...istensen-coast

O.C.-owned sailboat found adrift off Hawaii - with no one aboard
Seller of boat, who still is owed some money, hasn't heard from buyer in three months.
By GREG HARDESTY
The Orange County Register

DANA POINT – Like all mysteries at sea, the fate of novice sailor Darrin Frank Bunker may forever remain as murky as the ocean depths.

On the morning of Oct. 3, the Aliso Viejo man set sail for San Diego from Dana Point Harbor in a 30-foot sailboat he had bought two months earlier.

Bunker’s dream was to live on the sailboat, said Narik McArthur, who sold Bunker his rebuilt Catalina sloop “Bug Trap” for $18,000.

For a few weeks, McArthur subleased his permanent slip in Dana Point Harbor so Bunker, 42, could get used to the boat. He gave him sailing tips as the two men cruised the harbor.

When Bunker set sail that morning in calm seas and under clear skies, the Santa Ana winds kicking up and the offshore breeze blowing at a steady 15 knots, he told McArthur he had found a new home for his boat in San Diego.

It was around 10 a.m.

“You’re going to get caught in the dark,’’ McArthur recalls telling Bunker of the eight- to 10-hour trip.

“No problem,’’ said Bunker, a sturdily built man of about 6-foot-3 who ran his own online game company – a guy who appeared to mostly keep to himself. “I’ve checked the charts. I have a radio in case I need help.”

McArthur never saw or heard from Bunker again.

On Sunday, a Kauai man was fishing about 19 miles off the main island town of Lihue when he spotted “Bug Trap” bobbing in the sea. He called the Coast Guard.

Officials found an empty boat, its cabin slightly damaged by fire and its mast torn loose by the unforgiving elements.

They found Bunker’s laptop and other computer equipment inside the cabin, along with cases of Corona beer and sodas, canned food and other supplies.

They found cartons of Marlboro Red cigarettes on a sleeper sofa, and snuffed-out butts in ashtrays.

But they found no traces of Bunker.

“It looks like he was living aboard the boat,’’ said Kai R. Christensen, the officer in charge at the U.S. Coast Guard station in Kauai.

Hawaii police and fire officials said Tuesday they have ruled out foul play. They said the fire appears to have been accidentally started – although they haven’t pinpointed the cause. The investigation continues.

Officially, Bunker is missing – but Christensen wasn’t hopeful.

“We definitely wouldn’t assume anyone (could) survive alone at sea without a boat for that long,’’ he said.

Details about Bunker were scant Tuesday. His last known business address was in Aliso Viejo – for Posse Entertainment, his computer-game company. He also has lived in Michigan.

McArthur, 37, of San Juan Capistrano, a self-employed general contractor, described himself as an acquaintance of Bunker. The two met when Bunker responded to a for-sale ad for the sailboat McArthur posted on the Internet in August.

Bunker paid McArthur $9,000 as a first installment for the boat, and owed him a few thousand more dollars when he vanished. The title remained in McArthur’s name.

When McArthur hadn’t heard from Bunker about a week after he presumably left for San Diego, he emailed him.

No response.

After a few weeks passed, he started calling Bunker regularly on the three numbers he had, demanding that he contact him so they could conclude the sale and take the boat out of McArthur’s name.

Still no response. Eventually, Bunker’s phone numbers went out of service.

In mid-December, McArthur contacted the Department of Motor Vehicles and told them about his problem. Taxes were coming due on the boat. Officials said he needed to get in touch with Bunker to secure proper transfer of the boat.

Sunday, the Coast Guard called McArthur.

By coincidence, the man who was fishing and spotted the empty sailboat turned out to be a friend of one of McArthur’s close friends on Kauai. McArthur grew up along the water in California and lived in Hawaii for a couple of years. He has sailed boats for most of his life.

“This is just baffling to me,’’ McArthur said. “At first, I thought he was just burning me by leaving without paying what he still owed me. Now I feel bad. When I got the call from the Coast Guard, I was sickened.”

No missing person’s report concerning Bunker has been filed in Orange County, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

A MySpace page Bunker set up in October 2006 provides few clues about his life. He listed himself as single and his heroes as Thomas Alva Edison and John Glenn.

Bunker founded Posse Entertainment in 2006 and has worked in the online gaming industry for more than 15 years, according to a company Web site. He was working on marketing a game he created called “Dragons and Legends,’’ according to the Web site and his MySpace profile.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard officials in Kauai were set to examine the sailboat more closely late Tuesday and Wednesday to see if a two-man, inflatable raft still was on board and to piece together other clues to the mystery, Christensen said.

The heat from the fire in the cabin singed pillow covers and nearby plastic bags and other items but caused no structural damage, he said.

McArthur described Bunker as a “heavy” smoker.

No traces of Bunker were found on the boat – such as burned hair or other body tissue, Christensen said. Officials found two containers of gas – one with the lid off.

“It doesn’t look like the fire was intentionally set,’’ Christensen said.

McArthur laid out a possible scenario:

Bunker may have found himself a few miles off San Diego in the dark.

Finding it safer to enter the harbor in the morning, he goes down below to relax in the cabin, cracks open a beer or two, gets drowsy, and falls asleep with a cigarette in his hand.

“He wakes up, things are on fire, he tries to stomp it out, and in a panic while on fire jumps off the boat and can’t get back on it,’’ McArthur said. “But anything at this point is pure speculation.”

__________________
Papa and his "Jug"

shoefish

Wow, it's amazing that the boat was even found. What are the chances that it would drift to one of those islands?

seaclops

Those dam cigarettes will get ya every time,too bad sounds like he was
living his dream.

JimmyC

Wow. That doesn't sound good. You really have to be careful on the ocean.

OUTCAST1

"By coincidence, the man who was fishing and spotted the empty sailboat turned out to be a friend of one of McArthur’s close friends on Kauai. McArthur grew up along the water in California and lived in Hawaii for a couple of years. He has sailed boats for most of his life."


What are the chances BOTH of these things happened?

Story sounds shakier than a crack baby with a jackhammer!

hotrodmarlin

That's what I was thinking-