Coast Guard in Florida searching for father and son from R.I.

The Coast Guard in Florida has been searching the Gulf of Mexico for a father and son from Rhode Island.

Gerald Cook, 81, and Peter Cook, 55, left Panama City on February 13 and were scheduled to arrive at Vero Beach Tuesday February 18, according to the Coast Guard.

The Cooks are traveling with four of their dogs on a 52-foot yellow steel vessel called Rome.

The Cooks were planning to travel down the Gulf Coast from Panama City, in Florida’s panhandle, to the Okeechobee Waterway, which cuts across southern Florida to the East Coast, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer Ayla Hudson in Tampa Bay.

.@USCG is searching for a 52-ft steel hull vsl, Rome, with Peter & Gerald Cook & 4 dogs aboard. The reported voyage was to depart Port St Joe, Panama City, Feb 13 headed to Vero Beach, expected to arrive Feb 18. If you have seen this vsl, contact Sector St. Pete @ 727-824-7500 pic.twitter.com/35tRKEY957

— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) February 19, 2020

The Coast Guard has been searching the Gulf of Mexico after checking whether the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the intercoastal Okechobee Waterway, had received any reports on the vessel, Hudson said.

The search has covered more than 31,000 miles in the Gulf of Mexico since Wednesday, according to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard is searching with boats and aircraft.

Elisabeth Cook, 82, wife and mother of the missing boaters, told TCPalm.com, a USA Today publication, it was the Cooks’ first voyage on the recently purchased boat. They were bringing it from a marina to Vero Beach, near where the Cooks have lived for the past six years.

She last talked to her husband Feb. 13, when they stopped at Port St. Joe, about 40 miles south of Panama City. She called again the next day but did not reach them. She wasn’t too concerned, knowing that reception at sea is unreliable.

Her husband, Gerald, was an oceanographer who worked with the U.S. Navy on ships and submarines across the world, TCPalm reported. She said her son Peter worked for years as a lobsterman.

jperry@providencejournal.com

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