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They’ve spent $600,000 to pay for private plane searches. The money has come not only from their own savings but also from fundraisers, friends, family, even their daughter’s college fund. Deeply religious, the couple says God has kept them strong and determined.

“We cannot assume the boat sank without evidence, and we think it’s highly likely that it did not,” Robin Wright says.

“We know there’s a chance the boat sank. There is a chance. But do you assume the worst and stop searching?”

Still, the search has to end at some point.

On Tuesday the Wrights, speaking by phone from the Sydney Airport, said they were returning to the U.S after running out of money and were unsure if they would return to Australia. Still, they won’t lose hope until the anniversary of the boat’s disappearance.

“After a year, I think the chances are down pretty low,” Ricky Wright says. “But we will not give up on them. We know other people have survived up to a year.”

The Wrights remain unhappy with aspects of the official search. They believe it began too late, wasn’t extensive enough, and failed to restart when they presented authorities with a grainy satellite image they believe depicts the Nina adrift.

New Zealand searchers say they did everything by the book and cannot do anything more. They say the military reviewed the ghostly image and concluded it was nothing more than the foam from a wave.

The Wrights last month met New Zealand’s Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee in Wellington to express their concerns.