Search for missing Scottish sailor Bob Peel who has not been heard from for almost two weeks

• Article by ITV News Producer Natalie Wright

A search is underway for a sailor who has not been heard from in almost two weeks.

Robert Peel, who is from Edinburgh, issued a distress call on March 19 from his 54 foot yacht after leaving Tyrell bay in Carriacou, Grenada.

The emergency signal stopped transmitting on March 24 and nothing has been heard from the sailing yacht Kalayaan nor her captain since.

Friends from the sailing community are pleading for help in the search and rescue operation, contacting maritime authorities in the UK, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St Vincent and Puerto Rico which was his planned destination.

However, with no one authority taking control of the operation, they are appealing for help to predict his potential location through drift analysis and asking for anybody in the area to help look out for the 70-year-old who is thought to have been sailing alone.

A close friend told ITV News that “Bob is an experienced sailor who always took safety very seriously.

"If he saw his life to be at risk, he would have done something.

"The yacht has an emergency life raft and a dinghy and we believe he is still alive”