Where is Zac? A Parent's Worst Fear

G'day to all,
The last 24 hours have been very difficult. As most of you know, we are in communication with Zac on a daily basis; we speak twice daily in the late morning and late evening. All safety aspects of the vessel, current conditions and what is coming weather wise are always the hot topic as are situations back here with family, friends etc.
Yesterday we heard nothing from Zac at the appointed time to call. We are not too alarmist so didn't think a whole lot about it, although in the back of our minds we were hoping that everything was going well for Zac. As time pushed on a mild anxiety prevailed. Every time the phone went we raced to it with the anticipation that it was going to be Zac only to have our hearts sink with disappointment when it wasn't him. It was the opening of the AYSO soccer season yesterday and as a coach for Jessie's team (U10 ) and assistant coach for Toby's team (U12) the games provided a good distraction for the family from are growing concerns.
Throughout this journey Marianne and I have had a few of those awkward discussions of what would happen in the unlikely event of disaster overtaking Zac. Many times throughout the afternoon we exchanged glances and the look from Marianne troubled me. I had told her in the past to be prepared for days where there would not be any communication due to equipment failure. I tried to comfort her with the reminder of these conversations.
It had been eighteen hrs since we last heard from Zac. Conditions were fair with the lightest winds he had experienced in a month. What could have gone wrong? We decided to start taking action. Zac is very responsible and would have made every effort to touch base with us. Aside from his Iridium satellite phone, he has SailMail (email service) through the SSB (single side band radio) via a Pactor III modem. He also has SSB radio contact with other vessels that would have been able to relay back to us via email. It would be very unlikely for all of these systems to go down suddenly and at the same time. We took his last known position and projected his course to next way point, taking into account lapsed time, speed of the vessel and conditions. We could figure out where Zac should be. Were we being hasty or was our son in need of help? We tried contacting the yacht club in Port Moresby to see if they could contact local shipping in the area but there is no organized marine safety organisation there. We contacted any and all missionary pilots we could find out of PNG. It was already Sunday there and we had very little success.
We began to put out prayer requests, contacted other cruisers with SSB radios and Aussie customs organisations that fly in that area. There were many emails and phone calls made during the course of the evening. We had not called for a full blown search at this time.
Situations grew worse when we contacted Linda at Clearpoint Weather. She is the Iridium phone expert there. She was able to get Zac's call record directly from Iridium. It was not good news. His last call was to Mike, our team eletrician, at 2:00am (our time). The call put Zac's position way off course in amongst a heavily reefed area. Were our greatest fears being realized? We checked and double checked the information. The question on both of our minds was how accurate was the information? We called back to Linda who assured us that the location given by Iridium was known for being very accurate and was often used by search and rescue teams. Had Zac's quest to become the youngest man to sail around the world alone met ill fate? Was Intrepid on one of hundreds of reefs in the area?
The family mood had been somber throughout the evening. The children had gotten ready for bed and one by one fell asleep on couches, seats and futons. Nobody wanted to leave for bed without hearing that Zac was OK. It was late and we were emotionally drained. We prayed one more time before attempting to launch a full on search and rescue. If the boat had sunk the automatic EPIRB (emergency beacon) would have gone off. We knew that Intrepid was afloat. We looked more closely at the coordinates that Iridium had provided but could not understand two things: why was Zac was so far off course and how had he traveled so far as to be on top of those reefs?
We began to contact Cairns Australian Coast Guard for a full blown search and rescue when an email flashed across our monitor. "Hi mum. I'm OK ." We could hardly believe our eyes. Relief was an understatement. We shot him an email back asking him to check his position but heard nothing.
The evening had been nearly more then we could bear. We went to bed relieved to know he was alive and that he hadn't fallen overboard or been absconded by rascals but wondering if he had somehow miscalculated his position.
In the morning we had an email from Chris and John from Moana. They are currently a few days out of Cairns, Australia, their homeport. They had spoken to Zac at length on the SSB radio and though he had had some trouble with his sat phone and email, he was sailing along comfortably at 5-6 knots and undaunted by his communication troubles. Carey and Ted from Majuro had also made contact and gave us his latest position which was on course for his way point. Praise God for modern technology, a cruising network of true friends and God's goodness. A heartfelt thanks to all that helped during our communication ordeal . We still have not gotten to the bottom of why Iridium's position for Zac was so far off or why Zac's email isn't functioning well. The sat phone fell into the sink (and an inch of water) when Zac was running up on deck to tend to a screaming fishing line. It isn't dead but isn't working either.
Zac should be entering the Torres Strait this evening. His efficiency will be somewhat limited because of his communication problems. It will be a true test of his ability to navigate to get himself through there without the instant communications that he is used to. Please continue to keep him in your prayers and we will keep you all posted as we receive more information.
One drained father-of-seven,
Laurence