Hope has all but faded for a missing American sailor whose sailboat was found mysteriously abandoned on the Australian coastline, with a report being prepared for the coroner.

This Friday — October 10 — will mark one month since loved ones last heard from Hartwell Champagne Jr, 62, as he headed for our shores from Vanuatu.

The retired engineer’s vessel, named the Ocean Rambler, was discovered abandoned near Cape Bedford, north of Cooktown in Queensland ’s Far North, when it ran aground late on September 13 .

There was no sign of the boat’s sole occupant during a search of the immediate area early the next morning, and sadly he has not been found since.

Those close to the yachtie fear something went wrong as he sailed through a network of coral along the Great Barrier Reef, where

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