Missing sailor Tony Higgins’ possessions wash up near the Murray Mouth

Grave fears are held for a SA sailor who vanished twice at sea in less than two weeks after personal possessions washed up near the Murray Mouth.

Tony Higgins on his boat on September 11 in Victor Harbor, South Australia. Picture: Matt Turner.

Grave fears are held for a South Australian sailor who vanished twice at sea in less than two weeks after personal possessions including his glasses, a photo ID and bags were identified washed up near the Murray Mouth on Wednesday.

Tony Higgins, 57, made a distress call to SA Police at 5am Tuesday morning when his 64-year-old wooden boat, the 33-foot Margrel, started taking water.

Tony Higgins on his boat with his mate Derek Robinson (L) on September 11. Picture: Matt Turner.

He has not been heard from or seen since and early Tuesday morning after setting out in the boat which he bought off a supermarket notice board in the southern coastal town of Goolwa a few weeks ago.

Mr Higgins has now gone missing twice in a fortnight, having sparked the biggest search and rescue operation in the state’s history when his clapped-out boat became lost near Kangaroo Island after snapping a propeller and was found off the windswept Coorong peninsula two weeks ago.

When he rang Triple-O on Tuesday he told police that his boat had struck trouble again and was already half a metre deep with water.

A severe weather warning was in place across the SA coast Tuesday with wild winds forcing SA Police to call off the search by rescue boats, with SAPOL search planes finding no trace of Mr Higgins or his vessel.

A police helicopter, water operations unit and sea rescue volunteers started searching around Granite Island for Mr Higginson Tuesday morning. Picture: Gary Juleff

Better weather Wednesday morning has allowed the rescue to resume but his chances are looking increasingly bleak, with fishermen finding debris from his boat including storage containers, jerry cans his reading glasses and a photo ID.

Mr Higgins faced widespread criticism when he became lost the first time and was fined after he defied warnings from other fishos and attempted to sail the Margrel from Coffin Bay to Goolwa but became lost in the rough seas off Kangaroo Island after a propeller broke on his old boat.

After his first disappearance Mr Higgins was fined $1000 for having an out-of-date EPIRB and flares and for not holding a boat operator’s licence. It is not known whether he had obtained a licence or bought new safety gear prior to setting out again this week.

This second rescue effort has again been a vast one with the Australian Maritime Safety Authority deployed one of its Bombardier Challenger 604 rescue jets from Melbourne.