Brothers Missing Off Anacapa

Two brothers from Provo, Utah, were missing Saturday evening after they went exploring off Anacapa Island in a small rowboat, authorities said.

“They left from a sailboat on the north side of Anacapa about noon,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Randy Reid said. “They decided to go . . . look at some caves, and they left in an eight-foot dinghy, a little rowboat.”

When the two men, Brian Bolton, 22, and his brother Monty, 27, were about 90 minutes overdue, relatives who were on a sailboat called the Coast Guard, Reid said.

A Coast Guard helicopter and ships began searching for the men about 3:20 p.m., Reid said. “We’ve done a pretty extensive search of the island,” he said. The small island is located about 11 miles southwest of Channel Islands Harbor.

The two men were last spotted heading west from the north side of the island.

Reid said he didn’t know whether the two men, whose parents live in Thousand Oaks, were experienced sailors. “There was a good riptide that could have taken them west pretty fast,” he said.

Authorities said they would stop looking about 10 p.m. Saturday and would resume the search early today.