The Coast Guard has officially suspended its search for a boat reportedly in distress and taking on water about a mile from San Diego's Point Loma.

In all, the Coast Guard searched for nine hours Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The Coast Guard had a call about 5 p.m. Wednesday from a local salvage company saying that a 20-foot boat with an adult and three children aboard needed help.

Along with searching, the Coast Guard throughout the night issued an "Urgent Marine Information Broadcast" asking boaters in the area to look for the distressed boat, call the Coast Guard, and render aid.

No debris was found.

One possibility is that the boat regained power and made the trip to land without assistance.

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Coast Guard no longer actively searching for boat

Coast Guard, San Diego Harbor Patrol search for boat in trouble off coast

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

After searching Wednesday night and again Thursday morning, the Coast Guard is no longer actively searching for a boat off San Diego that reportedly was in distress and taking on water.

No sign of debris or survivors was spotted by a Coast Guard helicopter that combed the area off Point Loma for 90 minutes after daybreak Thursday.

The search began after the Coast Guard received a call about 5 p.m. Wednesday about a 20-foot boat with an adult and three children aboard. The call came from a firm that takes distress calls from boaters.

The search had been suspended late Wednesday night due to high winds and large waves but was resumed Thursday amid calmer weather.

No further calls were made to the Coast Guard, and no family or friends have come forward to express concern about a possible missing boat. One possibility is that the boat made its way to land without assistance or notifying authorities, officials said.

A decision on whether to suspend the search altogether will be made later in the day, officials said.

RELATED:

Authorities search for boat in trouble off coast

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

The U.S. Coast Guard and San Diego Harbor Patrol are searching for a 20-foot boat with four people aboard reportedly in trouble about a mile from Point Loma, officials said Wednesday night.

The Coast Guard received a call about 5 p.m. from a "vessel assist'' service that relays calls for help from boats. The call said a craft with one adult and three children aboard needed help.

The Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter and two boats, and the Harbor Patrol dispatched a boat for the search. By 8 p.m. no sign of a troubled boat could be found.

The area is being whipped by 30-knot winds and 6-foot seas. Both wind speed and the state of the sea are forecast to worsen during the night.

Civilian craft are not required to check in with the Coast Guard before venturing into the ocean, so it's possible the boat has returned to a harbor under its own power.

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--Tony Perry in San Diego

The driving rain and buffeting winds wreaked havoc Wednesday at Southern California harbors, ripping boats from their moorings, swamping vessels and causing a small oil spill in the Dominguez Channel, officials said.

In Wilmington, rain caused oil collection areas to overflow after a small pipeline ruptured, sending up to about 50 gallons into Dominguez Channel, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

"It just dissipated out very quickly," said Lt. Sean Arumae, adding that the spill was quickly contained. The incident is under investigation by federal authorities.

Heavy winds tore two commercial barges from their moorings in San Pedro Bay, causing one to nearly float into a railroad bridge before it was towed by rescue craft. One of the barges carried equipment, and the other was empty, officials said.

Rains swamped motor vessels in the Cabrillo Marina and in Long Beach, the Coast Guard said.

In Santa Barbara, meanwhile, crews removed 70 gallons of diesel fuel from a 50-foot sailboat that had washed onto the shore at East Beach, officials said. The boat was still on the shore Wednesday afternoon as the Coast Guard tried to locate the owner.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Photo: Sailboat washing up at Santa Barbara. Credit: U.S. Coast Guard, Marine Safety Detachment

A Coast Guard member has been exonerated of dereliction of duty for his alleged role in a Dec. 20 crash in San Diego Bay that killed an 8-year-year-old boy, the Coast Guard announced Wednesday.

The charge against Petty Officer Lavelle M. Teague was found to be unsupported by the facts after a hearing presided over by Capt. Stephen Metruck, chief of staff of the 11th Coast Guard District. Metruck made the decision.

The hearing, known informally as a captain's mast, involves evidence being presented. No other charges were pending against Teague.

Teague was the engineer on a boat that collided with a civilian craft during the annual Parade of Lights. Anthony DeWeese was killed, and six people on board the civilian craft were hurt.

Three other Coast Guard members face more serious charges at courts-martial.

--Tony Perry in San Diego

The U.S. Coast Guard on Friday night evacuated a 75-year-old woman who became sick while on the cruise ship Oosterdam about 180 miles southwest of San Diego.

The woman and the ship's nurse were airlifted by MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from the Oosterdam to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.

The helicopter was dispatched from the Coast Guard's San Diego station. Also, an HC-130 Hercules aircraft from the Coast Guard station in Sacramento supported the evacuation by locating the ship.

The evacuation came the same week the Coast Guard assisted in bringing the disabled cruise ship Carnival Splendor into San Diego.

--Tony Perry in San Diego

Passengers disembarked Thursday morning from their ill-fated cruise on the Carnival Splendor, full of survivor stories, quips and -- generally speaking -- a fairly upbeat attitude about their experiences.

They were greeted by a horde of media, as well as relatives, friends and even strangers who decided to come to the port in San Diego to witness the spectacle firsthand. Enterprising merchants also hawked T-shirts: "I survived the 2010 Carnival Cruise Spamcation."

Honeymooners Josh and Ashley Vest of Fullerton said they tried to make the best of it. And though they initially thought the trip was ruined, Joshua Vest, 23, said spirits lifted once a tugboat arrived and the Navy began shuttling food and supplies to the ship.

"The food was lousy," Vest said. "The bar in our area was closed. But it wasn't too hot aboard the ship and there was music and games. Last night, we knew we were going home and everybody was happy. And then they opened up the bar and people were even happier."

He said the joke among passengers was that there were going to be "a lot of babies born in the next nine months."

Mike Hall, 36, who works for a Las Vegas cable TV company, said the fire caused a disturbance that rattled the ship.

“We were sleeping late and suddenly the whole ship started to shake and the power went off. We were in the dark. And we knew something bad had happened," he said. "It woke everybody up.”

Toilets in his part of the ship wouldn't flush until Wednesday, forcing passengers to scoop up waste and dump it in receptacles at another location. The elevators on board also didn’t work.

Hall said this meant a lot of going up and down stairs. That, coupled with the bad food, made it easy to drop some pounds, he said.

“If you wanted to lose weight, this was the place,” he said. “They should call it the ‘Splendor Diet.’ ”

Most passengers said they were looking forward to a good, hot meal -- and were relieved to be back on land.

Passengers and crew members aboard the disabled cruise ship Carnival Splendor are "safe and healthy," according to the U.S. Coast Guard, which sent a health service technician and food service technician to the ship.

The Coast Guard cutter Morgenthau is shadowing the 952-foot Splendor as tugs pull it slowly to San Diego. The ship, left powerless by an engine compartment fire Monday morning, is estimated to arrive in San Diego by midday Thursday.

The cruise ship has 3,299 passengers and 1,167 crew members. The ship remains without air conditioning and hot-food service, although the toilets are working and passengers are able to make sporadic phone calls.

In calls to friends ashore, passengers report long lines for food and a feeling of boredom and frustration but no major problems.

The cruise ship company is arranging hotel accomodations and travel arrangements for the passengers. The ship departed Long Beach on Sunday for what was supposed to be a seven-day trip to the Mexican Riviera.

Related: Carnival Splendor passenger describes 2-hour lines for food, other problems

Related: Powerless Carnival cruise ship pulled to San Diego

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Pulled by two tugboats, the crippled cruise ship Carnival Splendor is slowly heading toward San Diego, with arrival estimated for midday Thursday, the Coast Guard and cruise ship company said Wednesday morning.

One tug arrived at the ship about 150 miles southwest of San  Diego on Tuesday but a second had to be turned back due to mechanical problems. That tug has been replaced and the journey is continuing, the Coast Guard said.

Carnival Cruise Lines, owner of the 952-foot-long ship, had said Tuesday it might be necessary to take the ship to Ensenada if it was unable to maintain sufficient speed to make it to San Diego. But that speed has apparently been maintained and San Diego remains the destination for 4,000 passengers and crew members.

The ship lost power Monday after a fire in an aft engine compartment. On Wednesday morning, some telephone service had been restored for passengers.

There have been no injuries or medical complications reported to authorities. But passengers who expected the luxury of a seven-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera have instead found themselves without air conditioning or the sumptuous meals that were promised before they left Long Beach on Sunday.

One of the passengers, an employee of a Denver television station, called his employer to report that passengers were standing in long lines for food but were otherwise doing reasonably well -- chatting, playing cards and walking the open-air decks.

“The only thing that made it really tough was when the facilities were all broken down and all the bathrooms weren’t working and people were starting to get uncomfortable,” David Zambrano told 9News.

 "You stand in line for two hours just to get your food because everybody goes to the same place to pick up their food," he said. "And, so you stand in line and you wait, then once you get your food, you leave and you look for something to do."

The toilets were down for several hours but are now operational.

The Navy airlifted 70,000 pounds of food to the ship on Tuesday, including bread, canned milk, canned Spam, other kinds of canned meat, canned fruit, and snack food like Pop Tarts. The ship also has a supply of bottled water and some cold food.

A "large Carnival team" is arranging hotel accomodations and air and ground transportation for passengers, the company said.

Related: Passengers aboard cruise ship are 'safe and healthy,' Coast Guard says

--Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Seen from a U.S. Navy resupply aircraft, the Carnival Splendor cruise ship is towed by a tug about 100 miles off the Baja California coastline. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

A passenger on the Carnival Splendor cruise ship that lost power off Baja California and is being pulled by towboats to San Diego described long food lines and other onboard discomforts.

9News in Denver got what appears to be one of the first interviews with someone aboard the ship. David Zambrano, a 9News employee, told the station that passengers were eating Spam, crab meat and Pop Tarts as they waited to return to port.

“The only thing that made it really tough was when the facilities were all broken down and all the bathrooms weren’t working and people were starting to get uncomfortable,” he told 9News. "It's nothing like anyone expected, no.... You stand in line for two hours just to get your food because everybody goes to the same place to pick up their food. And, so you stand in line and you wait, then once you get your food, you leave and you look for something to do."

He said the situation hit a low point when the ship's bathroom facilities broke down. But they have since been restored. Overall, he said, people are taking the problem in stride, playing cards and chatting with fellow passengers.

The ship, which lost power Monday because of an onboard fire, is expected in San Diego about midday Thursday.

To ensure safety, the Coast Guard cutter Morgenthau, a high-endurance cutter based out of Alameda, is shadowing the 952-foot Splendor on the voyage. The fire knocked out the air conditioning, telephone and hot food service for the more than 4,000 passengers and crew members.

The cruise ship company has promised a full refund to passengers and transportation from San Diego to Long Beach, the ship’s home port.

Related: Crippled Carnival cruise ship makes slow return to San Diego

-- Shelby Grad and Tony Perry