(CNN) — The day-and-night search for two 14-year-old Florida boys who went missing on a fishing trip is focused 60 to 70 miles off Jacksonville, north of where their capsized boat was found, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday.
Four ships and one aircraft have covered about 26,000 nautical square miles in the search for Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, who were last seen Friday near Jupiter buying $110 in gasoline for their boat, Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Steve Lehmann said at a press conference. One Navy ship is also assisting, he said.
“We have searched an area the size of Indiana,” he said.
The boys’ boat was found Sunday, capsized 67 nautical miles (about 77 miles, or 124 kilometers) off Florida’s Ponce de Leon Inlet.
The new search area was based off the location of the capsized boat, using flow models, Lehmann said.
The boys’ families and friends are holding out hope they’ll be found, one of the mothers said Monday morning.
“None of us are giving up hope they’ll find those boys,” Pamela Cohen, the mother of Perry Cohen, said on CNN’s “New Day.” “I have 100% faith they’ll find our boys.”
Nick Korniloff, Perry’s stepfather, said both boys were experienced boaters and fisherman. He said the family had rules about where Perry could take a boat without adult supervision.
“We requested when he was out in the water, that he fish the river and Intracoastal (Waterway),” he said Monday on “New Day” “He could go as far as the rocks and inlet.”
Perry was told not to go into the ocean unless he was in a bigger boat and had an adult with him, Korniloff said.
“We have taught them the respect of Mother Nature, the power of the sea,” he said. “They know what the water is all about.”
Football great Joe Namath, a neighbor of the boys’ families, is among the friends supporting them. He also said he’s optimistic.
“The history of the high seas have survival rates over the years,” Namath said. “There have been miracles out there, and we’re planning on finding the children.”
