# Jim Gray is missing
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 2, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580 "2007-02-02T18:42:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/1 "2007-02-02T18:42:43Z")
I don’t recall seeing a thread on this, but I just noticed a [newspaper article](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003552916_webmsexec02.html) indicating that the noted computer scientist [Jim Gray](http://research.microsoft.com/~Gray/) is missing at sea.
> [@The Associated Press](#):
>
> The Coast Guard has abandoned its search for an acclaimed computer scientist whose sailboat has disappeared off Northern California, ending a four-day hunt.
>
> Despite unusually calm weather, searchers have exhausted any area Jim Gray, who headed Microsoft’s Bay Area Research Center, could have drifted or sailed after leaving for a solo sailing trip Sunday to scatter his mother’s ashes at sea, a Coast Guard spokesman said…A cargo plane, a helicopter and six patrol boats dispatched by the Coast Guard had scoured more than 132,000 square miles of the Pacific since Monday in the search for Gray, whose database innovations led to some of the most widespread technological innovations of the past 30 years.
>
> The 63-year-old San Franciscan was last heard from on Sunday morning, shortly after he set out from San Francisco for the shark-infested waters of the Farallon Islands, about 25 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge.
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### Author:  [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/2 "2007-02-02T18:46:57Z")
Even if the Coast Guard called off the search, could the police be drawn into this as a missing-persons incident? Not to be morbid, but there might be a note left somewhere that would explain things.
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### Author:  [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/3 "2007-02-02T19:20:40Z")
Bill
Knock off the upgrades or Jim Gray will be working for me. Chained to a terminal in the basement.
Yours sincerely,
Steve J.
P.S. Do you know anyone that wants to buy a sweet 40-ft yacht? I’ll let it go cheap.
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### Author:  [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/4 "2007-02-02T19:45:04Z")
From the linked article:
> [@](#):
>
> “We’re still hoping Jim had some kind of engine malfunction and he just limped into a cove,” he said.
Hellooo. He’s in a sailboat.
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### Author:  [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/5 "2007-02-02T20:06:58Z")
[QUOTE=psycat90]
Hellooo. He’s in a sailboat.
[/QUOTE]
Most of those larger sailboats have an auxilliary motor for when there’s no breeze.
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### Author:  [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/6 "2007-02-02T20:19:05Z")
Yes, I know that. Probably something like 15-25 hp for a boat that size. Enough to get in and out of a marina usually. There’s definitely more wind power on the Bay, and the statement ‘he might have had to limp somewhere because of engine trouble’ is ridiculous. I’ve sailed the SF Bay plenty, and I have never once been out there when there wasn’t enough wind to power a sailboat.
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### Author:  [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/7 "2007-02-03T02:31:28Z")
I was worried for a second that a local-to-me Doper had gone missing. I’m glad to hear he’s not.
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/8 "2007-02-03T03:02:53Z")
[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth]
I was worried for a second that a local-to-me Doper had gone missing. I’m glad to hear he’s not.
[/QUOTE]
Tell me about it! Sheesh…even MY heart skipped a beat. And I even know where I am!
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### Author:  [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/9 "2007-02-03T03:05:06Z")
No he isn’t. I can smell him from here…
_ducks_
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/10 "2007-02-03T03:05:38Z")
I wonder if I can start claiming his dividends now, since he’s…you know…missing…
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/11 "2007-02-03T05:45:47Z")
Oops, wrong Jim Gray.
And here I was all ready to accuse Pete Rose!
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-gray-is-missing/390580/12 "2007-02-03T16:09:35Z")
I read about his disappearance in an article about sea serpents in the Pacific. Who’d have expected that? 😕