‘Please be on the lookout:’ Search continues for missing kayaker, friends and family hold vigil

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Friends of Eiffel Gilyana, the 46-year-old man who went missing off the coast of Vilano Beach Saturday morning, are continuing to look for him, despite the Coast Guard suspending its search Sunday night.

More than 100 gathered on Vilano Beach Christmas afternoon, praying for Gilyana.

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Those in attendance knew him as a friend, father, husband and brother.

“In the Old Testament, and just the old times, the ancient times, the sea is known as chaos because so much fear is driven there. But what do we see? God calm the chaos,” said a pastor who led the vigil.

Gilyana was reported as missing after he disappeared while kayaking in the area of the St. Augustine Inlet Saturday morning.

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He was reportedly not wearing a lifejacket.

Sunday night, a search effort that covered 341 square miles conducted by a combined nine agencies was officially suspended.

“If any of us was out there missing, he will be the one searching as well,” said Leo Yui, friend of Gilyana’s and cofounder of Task Force Hydro1.

Yui and other volunteers with Task Force Hydro1 plan to continue the search effort.

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Gilyana volunteered with the group now hoping to bring him home.

“He’s a man of faith and a loving father. Just a loving person,” said Yui.

Yui said Gilyana, who worked with the US military for more than half a decade in Iraq before coming to the United States, was a man dedicated to serving the community, whether it was his work with the Jewish Community Alliance or his work with the Task Force.

Yui is asking members of the community to do their part to help in the search.

“If you’re walking down the beach. Just please be on the lookout. You never know who you’re going to find. People have gone missing for many months or weeks, and you might be able to stumble upon something like that. And the same thing, if you’re boating around in the intercostal, if you’re paddle boarding, you’re kayaking, whatever it is that you’re doing there just always be on the lookout. You never know what you’re able to do to give back,” said Yui.

Yui and Task Force Hydro1 will start their search back up Tuesday morning.

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