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The Irish Coast Guard said the missing man is believed to have gone overboard from a UK registered yacht 16 nautical miles south of Dunmore East in the Irish Sea.

One woman, it was reported, turned up with a giant telescope "handed down from Trafalgar by some nautical ancestor".

The ships are now reportedly 340 nautical miles east of the New South Wales coast of Australia, although they were said to have come as close as 150 nautical miles from Sydney at one point.

Lee, who hails from Rancho Cordova, was discovered missing at 6:45 a.m. last Tuesday while the Waesche was conducting a routine counter-drug patrol around 300 nautical miles south of Mexico.

Mexico argues the US cannot legally change the Gulf's name because UN rules dictate that an individual country's sovereign territory only extends up to 12 nautical miles out from the coastline.