The U.S. Coast Guard called off the search Monday night for two men missing from a skiff that capsized south of Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska early Sunday.
Alaska State Troopers identified the men in an online dispatch as Troy Smart, 45, and Timothy Staples, 38, both of Metlakatla.
"We search for every person as if we are searching for one of our own. … Regrettably, we were unable to locate the missing men despite our steadfast efforts; our thoughts and prayers are with the loved ones of those missing," said Capt. Shannan Green, commander of the Coast Guard's Juneau sector.
The Coast Guard said the men left Mountain Point, south of Ketchikan on Revillagigedo Island, around midnight Sunday. They were expected to arrive at Cowboy Camp on nearby Annette Island about 30 minutes later, the statement said.
The fiancee of one of the men reported them missing around 4 a.m.
Their 16-foot skiff was discovered capsized in Blank Inlet on the southern end of Gravina Island — north of Annette Island — around 9:45 a.m., the Coast Guard said.
[2 missing after overturned skiff found near Ketchikan]
No further signs of the men were found over the past two days.
The Coast Guard said crews searched about 800 miles between Mountain Point and Annette Island. Volunteers from Ketchikan and Metlakatla helped with the search efforts too.
Late afternoon Monday, the Sitka-based Coast Guard cutter Maple, a 225-foot buoy tender and a smaller Ketchikan-based response boat focused on the shoreline around Bostwick Point, south of the missing boaters' intended destination of Cowboy Camp, said Petty Officer 1st Class Bill Colclough.
Sunday's search area included parts of Nichols Passage and the Tongass Narrows, as well as the entrances to George and Carol inlets, Colclough said.
An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew joined in with the search Monday but the crew returned to its base in Sitka due to weather conditions.
Weather in the area was reported as 46 mph winds, four- to eight-foot seas and two miles of visibility.