A man with Chattanooga roots was lost in the Pacific Ocean since Dec. 20. He was found nine days later with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Brown's sister-in-law.
Peter Brown went to Chattanooga Christian School and Baylor High School and has family members that currently live in Chattanooga. He set sail from Osaka, Japan with two other men on their way to Hawaii.
Several searches were conducted Thursday. Brown's sister-in-law said she had just gotten off the phone with the Commander in charge of the search Saturday evening. He told her they were putting out two planes that were covering thousands of square miles of uninhabited ocean areas.
Peter Brown and two captains set sail from Osaka, Japan around Thanksgiving.
"They're very experienced seamen, both of them are captains of their own ship," Christine Brown, Peter Brown's sister-in-law, said. "They're very comfortable. Peter is very comfortable on the sea as well. He has not done a long version of that which is why they had two captains."
They were supposed to arrive on Christmas Day.
"We suspected something was off because they shouldn't have been late. They were doing fine the whole time, but because they had no contact for a few days that was kind of unusual,” she said.
On Dec. 27, the family realized something was wrong at sea.
The men contacted the owner of the ship on Dec. 20 saying the ship suffered a dismantling incident. That was the last anyone has heard from them.
"There was a pretty bad storm that dismantled the mast of some sort. We're not sure if the mast was dragging in the water. All we know the men were able to take the mast down,” according to Christine Brown.
Without a mast, a sailboat is not operable; it just drifts.
Their last known location was about 800 miles northwest of Oahu. Search crews worked since Thursday. By Saturday, two planes were out scanning the water with radar.
"I mean there's no one there; it's a very isolated part of the Pacific Ocean. It's one of the most remote places in the Pacific Ocean,” both Christine and, brother of Peter, John Brown, said.
The family was optimistic that the men would be found and their hope paid off when Peter Brown was found along with his other shipmates Dec. 29.
"They're very good at what they do and we feel very confident, but again these are people that we love," Brown said, "We want Peter back, you know, we want him back."