Search for missing Bay Area Microsoft exec abandoned

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Coast Guard has abandoned its search for an acclaimed computer scientist whose sailboat has disappeared off Northern California, ending a four-day hunt.

Despite unusually calm weather, searchers have exhausted any area Jim Gray, who headed Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center, could have drifted or sailed after leaving for a solo sailing trip Sunday to scatter his mother's ashes at sea, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

"Although this search is suspended, if new information arises, it will be investigated," said Capt. David Swatland, the Coast Guard's deputy sector commander for the Northern California area.

A cargo plane, a helicopter and six patrol boats dispatched by the Coast Guard had scoured more than 132,000 square miles of the Pacific since Monday in the search for Gray, whose database innovations led to some of the most widespread technological innovations of the past 30 years.

The 63-year-old San Franciscan was last heard from on Sunday morning, shortly after he set out from San Francisco for the shark-infested waters of the Farallon Islands, about 25 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge.

"It's one of the most frustrating and unusual cases we've had," Swatland said.

Two tips to Coast Guard searchers that a sailboat was drifting off the Marin County coast just north of the city failed to turn up any sign of Gray or his 40-foot yacht, Tenacious.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Amy Marrs called Gray's disappearance a mystery because the weather was good, he was in good health and the boat was equipped with radios, flares and an emergency beacon.

Tom Barclay, Gray's colleague at Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center, said Thursday that three private pilots were searching the coastline.

"We're still hoping Jim had some kind of engine malfunction and he just limped into a cove," he said.