Man Disappears While Sailing Around the World. When Officials Found His Boat, He Wasn’t There – but His Dog Was

A week after a British sailor went missing, his boat and his small Jack Russell Terrier were discovered drifting about 100 miles from his last known location near the Canary Islands in Spain.

On Monday, Aug. 25, the boat of 34-year-old James Nunan was found off the coast of Gran Canaria, according to BBC, The Times, and The Telegraph. His 18-month-old puppy, Thumbelina, was found alive on board and taken to a shelter on the island, The Telegraph reported.

Nunan, who set out on a sailing trip around the world in March, last contacted his family a week earlier.

“It started to become very worrying, very quickly,” his half-sister, Nikita Goddard, told the BBC.

Nunan, known to loved ones as “Jemsie,” worked as a bricklayer to fund his global trip and had planned to sail to Brazil, according to the BBC. A previous sailing trip to Scotland inspired him to buy his boat, Kehaar, which eventually launched his bigger journey almost six months ago.

By mid-August, his mother became concerned when she didn’t hear from him during their usual check-in.

“She last spoke to him on Aug. 18 — it was a Monday — and by the Wednesday, my mum started to get a bit worried. I believe it was Friday, Aug. 22, when she reported him as a missing person,” Goddard told The Telegraph.

On Aug. 18, Nunan streamed a Facebook Live while walking with people on Playa del Confital beach. He later visited Paddy’s Anchor bar in Las Palmas, where he told another man he planned to sail to Lanzarote, another of the Canary Islands, the BBC reported.

That night at 10:49 p.m. local time, CCTV showed him buying dinner at a kebab shop. His backpack was stolen outside the restaurant, though he was seen eating with his passport hanging around his neck. By the next day, Tuesday, Aug. 19, his passport was reported “lost or stolen” to the Irish consulate, according to the BBC. Three days later, his mother reported him missing.

Goddard told The Telegraph, “We are told there was a ‘pan-pan’ alert made in regards to his boat — it’s one step down from a mayday.” The BBC reported the call happened between Aug. 24 and 25.

According to The BoatUS Foundation for Boating Safety and Clean Water, a pan-pan call is used to send out urgent information, like when someone has fallen overboard or when a boat is drifting into danger.

The Kehaar was discovered without Nunan on board just hours later. After the recovery, his family pleaded for help on social media.

“If anyone sees him call him Jemsie as only friends and family call him that,” his mother wrote on Facebook on Wednesday, Aug. 27. “Tell him we are looking for him and we have located both Thumbelina and his boat.”

As Nunan’s father searches for him in Gran Canaria, a spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told The Telegraph the agency is helping the family.

“We are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities,” the spokesperson said.

For Nunan’s loved ones, the wait has been painful.

“There’s a lot of questions going around,” Goddard told the BBC. “It’s just become crazy, to say the least. It’s not been easy.”