Garden Grove : Drifting Boat Identified as That of Missing Man

A sailboat found adrift eight days ago in the South Pacific with a body aboard has been positively identified as a long-overdue boat skippered by a Garden Grove attorney, the Coast Guard has reported.

Manning Eldridge, 41, who was at the helm of his sailboat, the Marara, was reported overdue Feb. 8, one week after he was scheduled to arrive in Honolulu from Tahiti. The boat was sighted 1,500 miles southeast of Honolulu by a Korean fishing boat on July 26. A Japanese fishing vessel guided to the scene by a Coast Guard plane later confirmed that there was a body aboard the boat.

Scott Hartvigsen, a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Honolulu, said Saturday that the cutter Sasafras was expected to reach the boat late Saturday night.

After reaching the boat, Hartvigsen said Coast Guard officials would have to determine whether to hoist the Marara aboard or tow it to Honolulu. If the boat is hoisted, it is expected to take the Sasafras six days to return to Honolulu. The trip would take 10 days if the boat is towed.

Hartvigsen said a forensic specialist was with the Coast Guard cutter to examine the body aboard the boat, but he added that a positive identification will not be made until the boat is returned to Honolulu.

Wendi Rothman, a Seal Beach friend of Eldridge, said Saturday the Coast Guard will was to call her family when the cutter reached the boat.

“But the boat has been positively identified. The only hope is that it will not be (Eldridge’s body),” she said. “But that is a very slim hope.”

Rothman said she and her husband would fly to Honolulu when the boat is returned to the Hawaiian capital.