May 7, 2007

On May 7th at 3:30 a.m. The United States Coast Guard received an EPIRB distress signal from “Flying Colours”, a 54 foot Little Harbor sailboat, captained by Patrick "Trey" Topping. Flying Colours was returning from St. Thomas and headed for Annapolis Maryland.

"Flying Colours"

On board the vessel (pictured below from left to right) are Captain Trey Topping, Rhiannon Borisoff, Jason Franks (also a Captain) and Christine Grinavic. At the time of the distress signal, "Flying Colours" was 361 miles due east of Edings Island, and in the middle of the what would later become the first named storm of 2007, Sub tropical depression, Andrea.

The National Hurricane Centers' wave buoys reported seas of up to 50 feet and winds of up to 75 knots around the time of the signal. The Coast Guard also received distress signals from three other vessels at the same time, all of which were found and their crews rescued.

Flying Colours and the crew of four was located at 3256.3W - 07407.1W at the time of the first EPIRB signal. This information was obtained directly from the Coast Guard by 4sailors.com as many reports have quoted different and inaccurate locations. This position is due east of Edings island, South Carolina. At the time of the initial EPIRB Flying Colours and her crew were 52 miles west of what would be a straight line between St. Thomas and the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. This may or may not have any significance as the storm was moving south southwest.

The Coast Guard searched 282,000 square miles in the Atlantic, a larger area than the state of Texas. They did not find anything before they called off the active search on May 13th. The Coast Guard says that although they are not actively searching they will follow any leads and/or information pertaining to the missing vessel. One of the main reasons the Coast Guard called off the search, according to reports, was the lack of any debris, or any sign of Flying Colours, and the same reason many family members still hold out hope.

Below are some graphical representations regarding Flying Colours last known position. The images were created using Google Earth and radar images obtained from The National Hurricane Center's website.