Missing Baltimore sailor’s wife and family ‘hopeful and optimistic’ after life raft not found with capsized boat

The wife of missing Baltimore sailor Donald Lawson said Sunday that she believes her husband used his boat’s life raft and “is still out there somewhere” as Mexican authorities continue their search for the 41-year-old whose boat was found capsized in the Pacific.

Crews from the Mexican Navy Rescue Coordination Center are looking for Lawson in the same area where his 60-foot trimaran, Defiant, was found capsized over 300 miles southwest of Acapulco, Mexico. They located and searched his sailboat Friday but did not find Lawson.

Defiant had a survival suit and other emergency gear onboard, Lawson said last year. Search crews found the suit, which would have kept him dry, on the sailboat Friday. A life raft that was on board when Lawson left Acapulco has not been found, said Ray Feldmann, a family spokesperson, Sunday. The boat had only one life raft.

“I view this as encouraging news,” Jacqueline Lawson said in a statement Sunday evening.

Defiant also had a small green dinghy attached to it, which was located by the Navy on Friday and found empty.

Donald Lawson was headed for Baltimore when he set out from Acapulco, Mexico, on July 5. He planned to travel through the Panama Canal to Baltimore but lost engine power a few days into the journey, and has not been heard from since July 12. He was to return to Baltimore to start a record-setting solo sail across the world.

“Your support, positivity, love, and prayers will be forever appreciated and have provided us with the strength and courage we need as we continue to push forward to find Donald,” his wife said Sunday, sending gratitude from the family for calls, texts and emails of hope in the days since Lawson went missing.

“My family and I remain hopeful and optimistic that he will be found alive.”

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