Story highlights Captain: The search for a ship that lost communications near the Bahamas will resume Saturday

Hurricane Joaquin is now moving northeast at 7 mph, has 125 mph sustained winds

Hurricane Joaquin may not hit the U.S. East Coast, but heavy rain and flooding is still possible

(CNN) For more than 36 hours, there's been no word from, and no sign of, the U.S.-flagged container ship El Faro.

That means no news on what's happened to the 28 Americans and five Poles aboard, faced with the full fury of Hurricane Joaquin and its up to 150-mph gusts, 30-foot waves and potentially 25 inches of rain.

The U.S. Coast Guard dispatched a cutter ship, an MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter and a C-130 Hercules airplane on Friday. But while the C-130 flew as low as 2,000 feet -- far below the normal 10,000 feet for such a storm -- it was not able to get close to the last known location off the Bahamas of El Faro, which means lighthouse in Spanish, much less spot or communicate with its occupants.

"There's so much wind, thunderstorms and sea spray that it is difficult to see," Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor told CNN's Eric Burnett. "But our hope is that they are either on the vessel or on life rafts, and we can identify them."

The search was resumed Saturday morning and was still underway as of Saturday afternoon.

Read More