Bibb County native missing at sea

By Linda S. Morris - lmorris@macontel.com

Macon.com

A 52-foot sailboat captained by a Bibb County native has been missing off the coast of North Carolina since early Monday morning.

Patrick "Trey" Topping, 39, who attended Central High School and now lives in Newport, R.I., is captain of the boat Flying Colours.

The boat's crew of four left St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, on April 30 and was traveling to Annapolis, Md. The trip was expected to take about 10 days.

The Coast Guard began searching for Flying Colours shortly after receiving a distress signal from the boat at 3:50 a.m. Monday, said Petty Officer Kip Wadlow. The signal came from an area about 120 miles southeast of Cape Lookout, N.C.

Wadlow said the Coast Guard is still treating the missing Flying Colours and its crew as "a search-and-rescue case."

"We are now searching a 38,000-square-nautical-mile area, which is approximately the size of Indiana," he said.

The search area has grown and includes more equipment as more time passes, he said.

Now involved in the search are two Coast Guard cutters, a C-130 airplane, an HH Jayhawk helicopter and a Navy P-3 Orion aircraft, he said.

Trey Topping is the son of Pat Topping, senior vice president of the Macon Economic Development Commission, and Diana Rodgers, deputy superintendent of teaching for Bibb County schools.

Topping and Rodgers, who divorced when their son was young, said they are concerned but optimistic.

"There are a lot of things that give us optimism," Topping said. "No. 1 is the experience of both captains on that boat. The boat was in excellent shape. ... The weather is clearing up, and there will be more boating traffic where they are."

The other crew members - who are all experienced sailors - are Jason Franks, 34, also a licensed captain; Rhiannon Borisoff, 22; and Christine Grinavic, 25, according to the Coast Guard.

Early Monday, the Coast Guard received distress signals from three other boats in the same area, Wadlow said.

"Monday was extremely stormy," he said. "We had 35- to 40-foot seas and winds in excess of 45 mph."

The Coast Guard was able to rescue nine people from the other three boats, he said.

"Some of the survivors said the storm came up and developed rather quickly," Wadlow said.

Topping said he was encouraged by news of the search after speaking with the Coast Guard about 9 p.m. Thursday.

He said searchers discovered two life rafts from the other missing boats. Topping explained that, ordinarily, life rafts are jettisoned to the surface when a boat like his son's sinks.

But the new discovery signals searchers likely are getting closer to finding the missing boats.

"This is the first really encouraging news we've had since we started," Topping said, adding no debris has been discovered from his son's boat, leading him to believe the boat may still be afloat.

"We're really encouraged that the boat may still be intact and the boys are alive and floating around out there," he said.

It was easier to search Thursday as the winds dropped to about 10 to 15 mph with 3- to 4-foot seas, Wadlow said.

"The Coast Guard remains hopeful," he said.

Flying Colours, which is ported in Annapolis, Md., is owned by Robin West, chairman of an energy consulting company, Topping said. Trey Topping has been the captain of the boat for about a year and a half, and he hired the other crew members from Newport, R.I.

"Trey has been sailing for over 10 years," his father said. "He has had his captain license about six years. His goal was to get his license so he could captain a boat across the Atlantic."

Topping said his son was hired by West to take the boat to St. Thomas last fall for the winter, and he was on his way back for the summer.

The crew's families have been in touch with their senators and congressmen, Topping said.

U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., has talked to the commandant of the Coast Guard, and U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., had a personal meeting with the admiral in charge of the Coast Guard unit, Topping said.

"The Coast Guard has been great on this," he said. "I talk to them four or five times a day."

Describing her son as a free spirit, Rodgers said Trey, who attended what is now Macon State College and the University of Georgia, has always led an adventuresome life.

"When he was 5, he caught a bus in Atlanta and went downtown because he wanted to see where the bus went," she said. "He would always explore. I had to have a lot of faith in God. He will go into dangerous situations but he's cautious and he's always prepared."

She and other family members are all concerned, but she said it wasn't time yet for her to start worrying.

Her son called her before he left St. Thomas and told her he should be back by the end of this week.

"I add a couple of days to that and then if I haven't heard, I start to worry," Rodgers said. "Do I worry? I think every mother worries when she can't see her children. But I tell people I'm not scheduled to start worrying until Saturday."

Staff writer Amy Leigh Womack contributed to this report.

To contact Linda S. Morris, call 744-4223.