Police searching for a man missing for two nights after a boating accident on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf fear he may have slipped out of his lifejacket and drowned.
The man and his friend were both left in the water on Sunday night after their five-metre fibreglass runabout was hit by a wave and sank just before dark.
One of the men made it to Browns Island where he was found yesterday morning cold and unhurt but a search of the gulf failed to find any trace of the second man.
He was wearing a lifejacket and police said today had he made it to an inhabited island someone would know.
Senior Constable Marty Renouf from the Auckland police maritime unit said they had searched other nearby islands without luck until dark last night and one option they were now considering was that he had slipped out of his lifejacket and drowned.
"There are several possible landfalls. There is civilisation on Rangitoto, there is civilisation on Motutapu, there is civilisation on Waiheke so if he had got onto one of the islands we should have known about it now."
He said police would assess the search today.
"It was such perfect search conditions yesterday and we are wondering why we haven't found him."
The missing man is believed to be in his 40s.
