A two-day search for a boater in Mission Bay ended Wednesday night after a Hillcrest nurse saw news reports about the missing man and realized he was a patient.

San Diego lifeguards and the Coast Guard began looking for Garrett Ferguson, 36, Tuesday morning after an unoccupied dinghy was found half a mile or so west of the Mission Bay channel jetty. The 9-foot inflatable boat held swim fins, a diving buoy, clothes and Ferguson’s ID card.

Coast Guard crews were still searching for Ferguson, of Huntington Beach, when the Scripps Mercy Hospital nurse called San Diego police about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Petty Officer Robert Simpson, a spokesman for the Coast Guard. Police officers went to the hospital and helped the Coast Guard verify that the patient was Ferguson.

Soon after, the search was called off and Ferguson’s family was notified.


Simpson did not have details about Ferguson’s health, except that he was not in critical condition.

“At this point don’t know how he got there, or why,” Simpson said.

San Diego lifeguard service Lt. John Sandmeyer said people on board a sailboat spotted the dinghy about 11 a.m. Tuesday. Lifeguards found the small vessel, with an outboard motor and fuel. It had no anchor, which would commonly be in use if someone were using the boat as a diving base, Sandmeyer said.

They spent hours trying to calculate the direction and distance it may have drifted, and enlisted a Coast Guard boat and helicopter and a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department helicopter to aid in a search.


They scouted the coast from La Jolla’s Calumet Park south to Sunset Cliffs. Radio broadcasts were made on an emergency channel for boaters to be on the lookout for the man, Sandmeyer said.

The search halted around sunset and resumed early Wednesday.

Lifeguards were going door-to-door to some residences in Sunset Cliffs in the morning and searched the surf line on personal watercraft. Sandmeyer said those detailed searches had to be curtailed to open life guard stations and towers by 9 a.m.

The Coast Guard later deployed a boat and helicopters.


Officials said the man’s mother, also of Huntington Beach, had expected to hear from him on Monday.

Sandmeyer said lifeguard officials contacted Ferguson’s mother on Tuesday and she became more distraught over their discovery. She knew her son has free-diving experience but did not know where he would be earlier in the week.

She then filed a missing person’s report with Huntington Beach police and lifeguards notified San Diego police, Sandmeyer said.

He said the man does not own a boat, and the dingy, which appeared to be fairly new, is not registered. It was not clear whether the dinghy belonged on some larger boat or had been acquired separately.



UPDATES:

10:40 p.m.: This article was updated with details about the boater being found. This article was originally published at 9:30 a.m.