Family optimistic in search for missing Maryland sailor after update viewed as 'encouraging'
BALTIMORE - Jacqueline Lawson is still optimistic that her sailing husband, Donald Lawson, will be found alive after learning what she believes is "encouraging news."
Crews are searching for the missing Baltimore man miles off the coast of Mexico.
His sailboat "DEFIANT" was located last week nearly 360 nautical miles away from Acapulco.
However, his lone life raft was not with the trimaran.
MORE: Wife notified sailboat was located without missing Maryland sailor off Mexico's coast
Jacqueline Lawson said that the news is encouraging and that her husband may still be alive somewhere on the raft.
"I view this as encouraging news," she said in a statement Sunday. "I believe Donald used the life raft when DEFIANT became disabled, and that he is still out there somewhere."
Donald Lawson left Acapulco on July 5, on his way to Baltimore via the Panama Canal.
He was last heard from a week later and remains missing at sea.
A video from the Navy in Mexico shows the capsized trimaran located in the Pacific Ocean.
The sailboat was found Thursday night by a patrol boat about 360 nautical miles from Acapulco where Lawson departed three weeks earlier.
Officials told Lawson's wife there was no sign of the boat's only life raft.
"He's an experienced sailor and he's always focused and determined, so I know, whatever and by any means, he's going to do the best he can with what he has," Jacqueline Lawson said.
In a YouTube video shared last month, Lawson and his wife detailed his upcoming journey.
The professional sailor was preparing to break a world record this Fall for circumnavigation on a trimaran.
Lawson's last post on Facebook weeks before he went missing shared weather patterns off the Mexican coast.
"So, we'll have AIS on and we'll also have a tracking device on," Lawson said in the video.
Donald Lawson talked about submitting his travel plans and tracking systems.
One of those systems publicly shows how the DEFIANT went off course and eventually lost communication about 300 nautical miles from where he set off in Acapulco, Mexico.
"He did have those things on board and those things have been given to the Mexican Navy," Jacqueline Lawson said.
Donald Lawson's last communication was July 12 when he told his wife he had lost his engine and a wind-powered turbine in the storm.
"Although my brother had a certain level of pride, he also had a certain level of common sense," said Quentin Lawson Sr., Donald Lawson's brother.
Quentin Lawson Sr. told WJZ last week that Donald Lawson always had an interest in sailing and breaking records.
"Whether he's drifting or whether he ran into some unsavory characters, whatever the case may be, we want Donald back home," he said.
The United States Coast Guard assisted in the search last week but called off its efforts on Friday.
According to the Lawson family, Mexican Navy Rescue crews told them its search is continuing near where the capsized boat was found.
