PORT ANGELES — Bill Landers is lost in the South Pacific, but those who love him aren’t giving up hope.
Landers, 64, is a native son of Port Angeles who couldn’t stand its weather, family and friends said. A veteran sailor, he set out alone from Mazatlan, Mexico, in early April and headed for the Marquesas, islands 1,000 miles northeast of Tahiti in French Polynesia.
On April 22, he sent his daughter, Emily Pearl — for whom his sailboat is named — an e-mail.
“Here’s a picture of the boat and Papa playing music,” Landers wrote above a photo of the Emily Pearl, sails full of wind, on the shimmering Pacific.
“I love you — Papa,” he signed the note.
Emily, 4, lives with her mother, Landers’ former partner, Pamela Boyd, in Port Angeles.
Emily’s grandmother, Beep Adams, is a longtime friend of Landers who’s been exchanging frantic e-mails with Erik Dix, another friend and sailor who has been in the Marquesas since before Landers vanished on May 3.
Shortly after his departure from the island of Nuku Hiva, Dix heard Landers on VHF radio. He was headed for the tiny isle of Ua Pou, about 25 miles from Nuku Hiva, and tried to radio a few other boats, but “apparently wasn’t able to receive the answering hails,” Dix said.
“He sounded calm and didn’t issue a Mayday.”
On May 4, Landers’ sailboat was found sunk in shallow water, 50 feet off the coast of Ua Pou.
Dix has e-mailed updates on the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center of Papeete, another French Polynesian island, that organized an air, land and sea search for Landers, a “singlehander,” or lone crewman in sailing terms.
The French Navy and U.S. Coast Guard were among the agencies involved in the search.
Search called off
Eleven days hence, “they are not searching for him anymore,” Melissa Hauck, public affairs specialist for the Coast Guard in Alameda, Calif., said Friday evening.
The circumstances of Landers’ disappearance are mysterious.
He would never have steered his boat so close to the shore, Adams said. He set sail on decades of experience — and with a lifeboat that provides a glimmer of hope to her and to Dee Thompson, Landers’ older sister and Adams’ friend since their girlhood in Port Angeles.
Before departing for the Marquesas, Landers bought a Portland Pudgy, a green dinghy with a sail and canopy.
He took it to the South Pacific, having chosen the green model after his daughter, Emily, told him of a dream she’d had.
“His little girl dreamed,” Adams said, “that Papa was in a little green boat.”
The dinghy’s color, however, could make it hard to see in the ocean. Adams wonders whether Landers fell overboard, climbed into his lifeboat and is still out there in it.
Until May 3, Landers communicated via e-mail and Skype, an Internet communication service, with his family.
Thompson, who now lives in Rimrock, Ariz., said she spoke with her brother — saw him on her computer screen — a few weeks ago.
He’d arrived in the Marquesas and fallen in love with the warm, sunny archipelago, she said.
Family, friends
But Landers left behind a large family and many friends in Port Angeles and across Washington state, Adams added.
Along with Emily, Landers has seven other children, in their 20s through their 40s, plus grandchildren spread around the state, she said.
His eldest is Neal Landers, who lives near Seattle and works for the Boeing Co.; his youngest son is Lars Landers, who Thompson said has just come home to Omak from Iraq, where he has been serving with the Army.
Billy Landers Jr. lives in Bothell; Steven is in Kingston and daughters Kathleen, Elizabeth and Meaghan live in Omak, Longview and Missoula, Mont., respectively.
Landers was to have come back to Port Angeles in October, just before Lars’ November wedding, Adams said.
She added that her friend is a well-loved musician in his hometown.
“He has a beautiful voice” and performed with the Old Time Fiddlers and other groups in senior care homes, the Juan de Fuca Festival and concerts on City Pier.
Landers is also a guitarist and harmonica player — who brought his guitar sailing so he could play along with the ocean’s song.
Landers’ guitar and laptop computer were found near the shore of Ua Pou by a Marquesan fisherman; searchers also recovered a watertight bag of U.S. currency and a cigar box containing U.S. Army pins they believe belonged to Landers.
His 22 years in the military included service in the Air Force and Army; he retired at age 40 and continued to travel the world until returning to home to Port Angeles about 10 years ago.
The one thing that has not been found is Landers’ dark green dinghy. Thompson and Adams picture him in that small craft, its canopy shielding him from the sun. A recent rain could provide drinking water, and he’s a good fisherman, Adams said.
Thompson added that her brother had reached a place where he felt at home.
“If he’s gone,” she said, “he was doing exactly what made him happy.”
Yet Thompson’s e-mail to Adams last week was signed, “Still hoping.”
“We keep thinking,” Adams added, “Don’t give up.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
