Daughter Searches For Missing Sailboat

Stephanie Koenig has turned her one-bedroom Tacoma apartment into an investigation center. She spends hours on the phone talking with authorities and has discussed working with private investigators and divers.

She hasn’t given up hope that her parents, missing since they set sail for Alaska two months ago, are still alive.

Donald and Traudl Koenig left the Port Orchard Marina on April 26. There has been no sign since of them or their 30-foot sailboat, the Adventuress - despite a search covering 100,000 square miles.

The Bellevue couple was headed for Alaska, where Donald Koenig, 58, an employee of Allstate, was moving to Allstate’s Juneau office.

Mrs. Koenig, 54, had promised to call her daughter regularly during the voyage.

When no calls came, Stephanie Koenig, 33, began to worry.

Then her mother failed to show at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on May 19, when they had been scheduled to meet.

“I waited all day for the phone to ring and when it never rang, I knew right then something was wrong,” Stephanie Koenig said.

The Koenigs had been avid sailors for about six years and their sailboat was equipped with a satellite navigation, radio and cellular telephone for the 700-mile trip. On board were groceries for a two-week trip.

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Sue Workman said weather for the week after their departure was mostly clear, with only an occasional rain shower.

The couple planned to take a route west of Vancouver Island, which is shorter than the Inside Passage - between the island and mainland British Columbia - but exposes boats to the open ocean.

Workman said the Koenigs’ sailboat wasn’t built for an open-ocean voyage.

“The winds and currents on the outside blow you toward Hawaii,” Port Orchard police detective Ray MacPherson said.