A rescue operation to find missing sailor Mark Clarke has been called off by police in the Cayman Islands who now fear that any hopes of finding the former Olympic competitor alive are all but gone.
Clarke, 63, was last seen leaving Rackley's Canal in the North Sound area of the Caymans on a solo fishing trip on Monday (October 21) on board his 25-foot boat called "Badger" and has not been seen or heard from since.
His empty boat was found wedged on coral reef off the Cayman Kai on Tuesday night prompting authorities to launch a search and rescue mission for the veteran sailor.
However, despite a comprehensive operation by the Joint Marine and Air Operations Units of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS), who were assisted by numerous local fishermen, no trace of Clarke has been found and police now fear the worst and are continuing the search in the hope of finding his body.
The Cayman authorities did reveal that they found a mobile phone belonging to Clarke during the search but the service provider confirmed that no signal had been traced to the phone after 5.00pm on Monday evening – the day he was last seen.
"This could be consistent with his phone getting in water," said Inspector Ian Yearwood, who is leading the search effort and is a former colleague of Clarke from his time in the police force.
"For some reason, the last contact signal-wise was at 10 minutes to five o'clock.
"This was his time of recreation and it was not unusual for him to go to sea for three to four days."
Clarke, originally from Jamaica before moving to the Cayman Islands in the 1980s, represented the country in the laser one person dinghy class at theBarcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996 Olympics as well as taking part in Central American and Caribbean Games, and Pan American Games.