JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — On Monday, the search continued for a father of three and a husband missing at sea.
Thirty-seven-year-old Timothy Obi went missing Saturday while he was spearfishing and diving about 40 miles off the coast near Mayport. Friends and family said he never returned to the boat.
"I haven't really slept the past two nights just thinking about Tim and just praying that there’s still hope," Bailey Rowland, who works at Atlantic Pro Divers, said.
According to Rowland, Obi is a regular there.
"Actually, one of my first dives with the dive shop offshore was with Tim and he was always a safe diver, never reckless or anything like that," she said.
According to Rowland and the shop's owner, Obi is an experienced diver. He was certified through Atlantic Pro Divers for advanced offshore diving.
Shop employees filled up tanks Monday for people volunteering in the search efforts.
”He’s hopefully out there somewhere, but my first reaction was just 'Wow! He’s one of the nicest kindest guys,'" Rowland said. "He has three small kids, so I’m really thinking about his family and praying that he’s found and praying for some piece for them."
As of Monday night, crews have searched more than 2,500 nautical miles in 27 searches over the course of 70 hours, according to the Jacksonville Sector of the United States Coast Guard.
Several agencies are a part of the search, including Florida Fish and Wildlife, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
JFRD is conducting side sonar scans, and JSO's dive team is helping with the search.
According to Jacksonville's sector of the Coast Guard, a C-144 aircraft from Air Station Miami conducted surface searches Monday. U.S. Customs and Border Protection helped the search by air. The search will continue through the night Monday into Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard said.
Captain Mark Vlaun, Commander of Jacksonville's sector of the Coast Guard, said hundreds of volunteers have called the Coast Guard asking how they can help. He said several private boats have helped with the search efforts too.
"It really provides us that force multiplier that the maritime community around here is just so famous for, and we’re so grateful for their help as we work through this to find Mr. Obi," Vlaun said.
Rowland said they've fielded a lot of calls too from people hoping to help.
“Especially seeing how many people are searching, people that don’t even know him, it says a lot about our community," she said.
Vlaun said Obi was wearing a black wetsuit and has a dive flag and an inflatable buoy with him, good news, Vlaun explained.
“Knowing we have an experienced person with safety equipment with them can always enhance the potential of being found," Vlaun said. "Finding an individual in the water is the hardest thing to do particularly when it’s an individual in a wetsuit so, that would make it hard. Knowing that he has rescue equipment with him that he could utilize makes our job much, much easier. It helps our partners and us find him either by sensor, or just by an eye."
According to Vlaun, they've had little drift and the weather conditions have been helpful. He said they've searched beyond the areas they think Obi could be to eliminate the margin of error.
"As we get into day three, we’re hopeful this is still an ongoing search, but we are getting to a point where you have a higher and higher level of probability and detection," Vlaun said. "And we still haven’t found him yet, so now we’re starting to look in second or third rings of trying to think through of where might he be if he was trying to swim or something along those lines and making sure we absolutely saturate those areas."
Obi's last known coordinates were more than 40 miles offshore near Elton Bottom, a well-known offshore fishing spot.
“He’s hopefully out there somewhere but my first reaction was just wow he’s one of the nicest kindest guys family," Rowland said. "He has three small kids so I’m really thinking about his family and praying that he’s found and praying for some peace for them.”