Coast Guard continues search for missing sailboat

RALEIGH (AP) — The US Coast Guard continued to search today for a missing sailboat and its four crew members who went missing Monday in rough waters off the North Carolina coast.

Crews have scoured more than 38,000 square nautical miles for "Flying Colours," a 54-foot craft traveling from Saint Thomas in the US Virgin Islands to Annapolis, Maryland.

Officials say they are still treating the case as a search-and-rescue.

Coast Guard crews rescued nine people from three other boats Monday morning as high winds whipped up seas as high as 40 feet.

The Coast Guard says "Flying Colours" sent out a distress signal but disappeared about 120 miles southeast of Cape Lookout.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)