FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ A Delray Beach woman missing since Sunday night while sailing with her husband near the Bahamas is a newlywed, a new mother and works in real estate sales, authorities and a relative said.
Isabella Hellmann, 41, married Lewis Bennett, 38, in Atlanta a couple of months ago, said Elizabeth Rodriguez, Hellmann's sister.
The couple were aboard a 37-foot catamaran called "Surf Into Summer" when it struck something about 1 a.m. Monday and took on water.
The boat was about 30 miles west of Cay Sal in the Atlantic Ocean and is partially sunk, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The cay is southeast of the Florida Keys and north of Cuba.
Bennett told authorities that he last saw his wife about 8 p.m. Sunday as she stood at the helm of their boat, 2nd Class Petty Officer Jonathan Lally said Monday afternoon.
"He was beneath the deck, sleeping when his vessel struck an unknown object," Lally said. Bennett had used an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon), which uses satellites to send a distress signal to rescuers. Bennett also used a personal locator beacon when he was found floating in a life raft, Lally said.
Hellmann is a state-licensed real estate sales associate. At her firm, colleagues were worried.
"I'm extremely sad to hear about the scary news," said Ben G. Schachter, owner and president of the Signature Real Estate Companies. "It's terrible. She is a nice, sweet young woman with a very bright future."
He said Hellmann has worked for the firm since February 2016 and specializes in residential real estate sales.
"I hope that they find her and that she is safe and out of harm's way, and that this nightmare comes to an end quickly," Schachter said. "Of course everyone here in our firm is keeping her in our thoughts and prayers."
He said Hellmann previously worked as a teller at a Chase Bank branch in Delray Beach, where he was a customer.
"She saw my name tag and joined our company," Schachter said.
Before dawn on Monday, the Coast Guard dropped Bennett off at Marathon Key, Lally said.
Rodriguez said her parents and sister were driving to the Keys to meet him there while she was caring for the couple's 9-month-old girl, Emelia.
The Coast Guard said a plane and a cutter were still searching for Hellmann on Monday while it weighed factors such as weather, signs of life, the currents, wave heights and water and air temperatures.
Those considerations will go into the agency's decision about how much longer to search for Hellmann.
"The unknown factor for us is a person's will to live," Lally said.
