Searchers Try to Reconstruct Publisher's Fateful Journey

On a boat the Merrilly's size, in the conditions that prevailed Saturday, "I'd want at least two other people on board who knew what they were doing," Burton said.

The fact that Merrill's boat was found at full sail, typical for traveling with the wind at one's back, sailors said, could indicate that an accident occurred on his way to Kent Island -- and then the craft drifted south with wind and currents to the Calvert County spot where it was found. On the return trip, Wood said, most sailors would have trimmed the sails to give them more control when facing the wind.

Either way, the search has focused on a swath of bay along the Kent Island route. But despite a specialized sonar search boat, five patrol boats and a helicopter, the search for a solitary drowned man in 100 square miles of bay can be excruciatingly slow.

A torpedo-shaped sonar "fish" is mounted beneath the sonar boat. Scanning the bottom, which ranges from 20 to 90 feet below, the sonar can "see" 100 feet on each side of the boat.

Following a pattern that some rescue teams call "mowing the lawn," the boat has been tracing Merrill's presumed route, overlapping 50 feet on each pass, "to make sure we don't miss anything," said Maryland Natural Resources Police Superintendent Mark S. Chaney.

The sonar has picked up tires and other debris but no sign of Merrill. On Monday, police managed to comb only three miles of the bay, less than half the distance they'd hoped for.

At that rate, covering the bottom could take weeks. But nature often speeds the search.

Initially, a submerged body sinks. But after a time, decomposition creates an internal buoyancy that propels a body to the surface. How quickly that happens depends upon such varied factors as stomach contents, medication a person might be taking, clothing and weight. It also depends in large degree on water temperature: The warmer the water, the faster a body will rise.

However, "there are simply so many variables, it is very difficult to predict what might happen," said Lee Meadows Jantz, a professor at the University of Tennessee's Forensic Anthropology Center.