The search will continue today to locate former Uckfield man Dominic Jackson who is missing after going kayaking off the Scottish coast.
The 35 year old and now living in Aberdeenshire went on a solo kayaking weekend trip to Portsoy.
The last confirmed sighting of Dominic was on Saturday 6 February at Portsoy harbour when he asked some locals where was a good spot to go kayaking.
It was confirmed by locals to be getting into his gear and launching the kayak which was manufactured in Uckfield.
This is the last confirmed sighting of Dominic and his housemate raised the alarm on Facebook and with the Scottish Police on Sunday evening at 9pm when Dominic failed to return home.
His VW camper van was found shortly after at Portsoy Harbour with a sleeping bag inside and no kayak.
Police made the decision to escalate the situation and two RNLI lifeboats were launched from RNLI Macduff and RNLI Buckie at just before midnight Sunday evening.
Helicopters also joined the search and 12 team members were searching the cliffs on foot in the dark but the land based search teams were stood down until first light Monday morning but the air and sea crews continued on through the night.
A full scale search began again at 9am on Monday morning. Dominic’s brother Stuart Jackson, father Jeremy Jackson and nephew Oliver Thorogood, travelled through the night to join the search parties the following day.
As the search gained momentum Dominic’s sister in Australia, Ellie Jackson was able to coordinate efforts to inform all family members of Dom’s disappearance and also to start to use social media to generate awareness to find her brother Dom.
The search has continued in various forms over the next 24 hours and will now enter its third full day tomorrow morning.
Dom’s distinctive kayak was found at Wick on Monday evening and a paddle has also been spotted nearby.
Some kayaking safety gear was found washed ashore on rocks in the immediate vicinity of the land search area and trough tracking down the kayaking store where Dom purchased his kayak the family and police were able to verify some of Dom’s gear and clothing he was wearing.
Dom is an exceptionally fit and healthy strong man who runs his own successful gardening business in Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire. Whilst having a physically demanding job he also had a strong passion for the outdoors and loved to snowboard, hill walk, snorkel and surf.
He is someone who is very comfortable in the Scottish conditions having moved up to Scotland from Uckfield, 13 years previously having attended Uckfield Community Technology College.
Dom’s family have a very strong hope that Dom will be found safely – one potential scenario is that Dom has been kayaking close inshore and somehow become separated from his kayak and for whatever reason the kayak has been carried out to sea away from him.
Recognising to swim after the kayak would be pointless he has decided to head for shore where he finds himself stranded at the base of steep cliffs. He has attempted to climb the cliffs to safety but has had an accident and now lies injured at the base of the cliffs awaiting rescue.
He had the correct clothing on him to stay warm and we are focusing on this as the best possible outcome for Dom. His family are understandably extremely concerned and have put all their efforts into joining the search teams on the ground and also assisting with social media information.
The family have said ‘Dom will be drawing great strength from hearing the search parties looking for him but also from the natural beauty and wildlife that will be surrounding him particularly the seabirds which he finds a unique affinity. He is a passionate environmentalist having studied Environmental Science at Manchester University’
The BBC report on missing Dom can be seen here
Police Scotland have put out an appeal on their website
Inspector Ewan Strachan said:
“Once again, I would appeal for anyone who may have seen Dominic over the weekend to get in touch if they think they have information which could assist. Our last confirmed sighting of him is in the Cullen area between 10.30am and 11am on Saturday and I would urge anyone who was there at the time and could help to contact Police on 101.”