Tauranga musician Regan Boocock's weekend gigs stopped him getting aboard Paul Van Rensburg's yacht, Tafadzwa - now missing between Tauranga and Gisborne since Friday.
"He was here at my place checking the weather on the internet on Thursday night," says Regan.
"That's the last time I have spoken with him."

Reegan Boocock says his mate, Paul, was confident he would go "straight through" to Gisborne.

Paul is overdue on a voyage from Tauranga to Gisborne. He set out from the Harbour Bridge Marina on Friday morning and did not appear at work in Gisborne on Monday.
On Friday night and Saturday the East Cape region was subject to severe weather. At about that time, Paul and his dog Juanita were due to be in that area aboard his 11m steel-hulled sloop Tafadzwa.
"He was aware of it (the weather)," says Regan. "He was umming and arhing about it -whether to go or not.
"He was mentioning maybe he would go out to some island and then go down the next day or something like that. It seems pretty weird that he hasn't been in touch.
"He was pretty positive about going straight through. He said it was going to be easy enough to get around the top, and after that he was expecting the weather to change. But I don't think he realised how bad that system was.
"He's been around the world and he's been all over the place. It must have been something major. Here's hoping we get some good news."
Aerial searches have failed to locate Tafadzwa by Thursday afternoon.
A coastline search from Gisborne to Hicks Bay failed to find anything. On Thursday afternoon a Tauranga based helicopter was expected to begin a coastline search from Tauranga to Cape Runaway.
An RNZAF Orion is continuing to cover its current search plan and will be finished late Thursday afternoon.

Click here for the latest information about the search.